Tetradrachm

Samos struck this tetradrachm in the immediate aftermath of the Samian War, in which Athens crushed a Samian revolt and imposed a democratic government, a heavy indemnity, and direct Athenian oversight on the island. The timing — 449–448 BC — places this issue in the first moment Samos was permitted to resume coinage under the new political order, making it a product of forced accommodation rather than independent monetary ambition.

Barron's classification of this type remains the standard reference, with the Weber specimen long used as a comparative touchstone for die study.