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Tetradrachm - Artemon
| Issuer | Abdera |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 425 BC |
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| Reference(s) | May, Abdera#187, AMNG II#71, HGC 3.2#1140, Hunterian#5 |
| Obverse description | Griffin springing to left, depicted in high relief with muscular leonine body, prominent spread wings rendered with finely engraved feather detail, and an eagle's hooked beak turned back alertly. The creature's forelegs are extended forward in a bounding posture, its hindquarters and taloned feet resting on a ground line. The entire device is enclosed within a beaded border, characteristic of the fine early Classical style of Abderite coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A kantharos (two-handled drinking cup) depicted in the center of a linear square frame, surrounded by the magistrate's name and an ivy leaf arranged in the field. The entire composition is set within a shallow incuse square, a hallmark of early Thraco-Macedonian coinage technique. The lettering is rendered in archaic Greek characters disposed around the central motif. |
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| Additional information |
Abdera was a Thasian and Clazomenian foundation on the Thracian coast, and by the mid-fifth century it had grown wealthy enough on regional trade — timber, slaves, and access to Thracian silver sources — to sustain a prolific and artistically ambitious coinage. Each issue of Abderite tetradrachms names a presiding magistrate, here Artemon, a practice that makes this series unusually valuable to historians reconstructing the city's civic administration across several decades.
The city was sacked by the Triballi around 376 BC, effectively ending its prosperity. Coins from the 450–425 window predate that disruption entirely.