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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Ainos (Thrace) |
|---|---|
| Year | 417 BC - 414 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Silver |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A horse standing to the right in a dignified, well-proportioned pose, with a flowing mane and detailed musculature rendered in high relief. In the lower right field, a small crouching figure — identified as a herm or a kneeling satyr/Silenus — grasps the foreleg of the horse. The ethnic legend ΑΙΝΙ (abbreviation for Ainos) is inscribed in bold Greek capitals to the left of the horse, filling the upper left field. The entire design is set within a plain, slightly incuse square border typical of early classical Thracian coinage. |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Ainos sat at the mouth of the Hebros River on the Thracian coast, and its tetradrachms from this narrow window — roughly coinciding with the catastrophic Athenian expedition to Sicily — circulated through a region under constant pressure from both Odrysian Thracian expansion inland and Athenian commercial dominance at sea. The city managed to maintain its own silver coinage precisely because it controlled the river trade route into the Thracian interior, a commercial position that gave it leverage no purely coastal polis could claim.
May's die study places #234–236 within a tightly sequenced group, suggesting concentrated production over a short span rather than steady annual output.