Ainos — a Thracian coastal city near the mouth of the Hebros River — struck these tetradrachms during a period when the city functioned as a significant transit point for Thracian interior trade, particularly in slaves and timber moving toward the Aegean. The dating places production squarely in the years Athens was consolidating Delian League control across the northern Aegean, a pressure that eventually forced Ainos into tributary status.
The May reference numbering reflects J.M.F. May's exhaustive 1966 die study, which remains the definitive sequence for Ainetan coinage. May identified distinct die pairings across this narrow window — the 37–39 grouping represents a transitional phase in the series.
Ainos — a Thracian coastal city near the mouth of the Hebros River — struck these tetradrachms during a period when the city functioned as a significant transit point for Thracian interior trade, particularly in slaves and timber moving toward the Aegean. The dating places production squarely in the years Athens was consolidating Delian League control across the northern Aegean, a pressure that eventually forced Ainos into tributary status.
The May reference numbering reflects J.M.F. May's exhaustive 1966 die study, which remains the definitive sequence for Ainetan coinage. May identified distinct die pairings across this narrow window — the 37–39 grouping represents a transitional phase in the series.