Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Tetradrachm - Aristeides
| Issuer | Samos |
|---|---|
| Year | 408 BC - 366 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Facing lion scalp depicted en face, with powerfully rendered mane radiating outward in bold, deeply engraved strokes. The feline visage is rendered with strong naturalistic detail, including the broad muzzle, flattened nose, and furrowed brow characteristic of the archaic-to-classical Samian style. The face fills the flan, with the flowing mane extending to the coin's edge. No legend or inscription appears on the obverse. The style reflects the accomplished die-cutting tradition of late fifth- to early fourth-century BC Ionian coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A bull kneeling to the right, rendered in high relief within a shallow incuse square. To the left of the bull stands a tall amphora flanked by two olive branches, emblematic symbols of Samos. Below the bull's body appear the letters ΣΑ, abbreviating ΣΑΜΙΩΝ (of the Samians), with a small circular countermark visible beneath. Along the upper border of the incuse field, the magistrate's name ΑΡΙΣΤΗΙΔΗΣ is inscribed in archaic Greek characters. The composition is detailed and dynamic, consistent with the skilled engraving tradition of fourth-century BC Samos. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Samos operated under Athenian political orbit for much of the fifth century, but the island's coinage reasserted a distinctly local identity during the early fourth century as Athenian hegemony fractured after the Peloponnesian War. The magistrate name Aristeides appearing on this issue places it within the period of restored Samian autonomy — Athens had expelled the original Samian population in 365 BC and replaced them with Athenian cleruchs, making any civic coinage struck before that expulsion a product of the last generation of independent Samian civic life.
The Hecatomnus reference situates this type in a broader Aegean numismatic tradition rather than a purely Samian one — a detail that speaks to the commercial reach of Samian silver across the eastern Mediterranean.