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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Mende |
|---|---|
| Year | 460 BC - 423 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Dionysos, nude and bearded, reclines in a relaxed posture atop a walking mule facing right, his raised right arm holding a kantharos (wine cup) aloft; his drapery falls loosely across his lower body. A small ivy branch appears in the upper field before him. The scene is rendered in the high-relief archaic to early classical style, with expressive anatomical detail. The entire design is enclosed within a border of small beads. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | ΜΕΝΔΑΙΟΝ |
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| Additional information |
Mende, a Macedonian coastal colony on the Pallene peninsula, was among the most prosperous wine-exporting cities of the northern Aegean — and that commerce underwrote the remarkably fine coinage it produced through the mid-fifth century. The tetradrachms of this period circulated widely across the Aegean trade network, appearing in hoards as far east as Anatolia.
The Jameson 1963 reference places this piece within a tightly catalogued group. The Mende series is notable for its die-linking complexity, which specialists have used to reconstruct a relative chronology across what is otherwise a poorly documented mint.