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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Tenedos |
|---|---|
| Year | 100 BC - 70 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Janiform jugate heads in profile, the left-facing effigy depicting a laureate and bearded Zeus, the right-facing effigy depicting a diademed Hera, rendered in the Hellenistic style characteristic of the island city of Tenedos. The two deities share a single neck, forming the distinctive janiform double portrait that served as the enduring civic emblem of Tenedos. The modeling of the facial features is bold and competent, with fine engraving detail in the hair and beard of Zeus and the diadem of Hera. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Tenedos, the small island off the Troad coast near the entrance to the Hellespont, controlled strategically critical shipping lanes and had long leveraged that position into commercial relevance. By the late second century BC, the island was issuing large silver on the Attic weight standard — unusual for a community of its modest size — almost certainly to facilitate trade with merchants navigating between the Aegean and the Black Sea rather than to finance any civic military ambition.
The SNG Copenhagen 497 reference places this piece within a well-documented but numerically small series. Dies for this issue are known to be few, and examples sharing obverse dies across multiple collections have been catalogued.