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Tetradrachm - Demokritos
| Issuer | Abdera |
|---|---|
| Year | 415 BC - 395 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
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| Obverse description | Griffin seated to left in the field, rendered in high relief with characteristic eagle's head and prominent curved beak, lion's body, and large folded wings spread behind. The right forepaw is raised, a hallmark of the Abderite griffin type. The figure is rendered in the vigorous archaic-to-classical transitional style, with finely incised feather detail on the wings and a boldly modeled leonine body. The field is plain and unlettered, with the griffin occupying the full flan. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A seven-stringed lyre depicted in the center of the design, rendered in fine detail with a rounded tortoise-shell resonator at the base and two upright arms supporting a crossbar from which the strings descend. The lyre is set within a recessed linear square border, itself contained within a larger incuse square, typical of the early classical coinage of Abdera. The Greek magistrate's legend ΕΠΙ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΙΤΟ is distributed around the inner linear square, with letters arranged along its sides in the field between the two borders. |
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| Additional information |
Abdera's tetradrachms are notable for naming the presiding magistrate on the coin itself — an unusually transparent civic practice for a Thracian Greek polis. Demokritos served as one such magistrate, and while it is tempting to equate this name with the philosopher Demokritos of Abdera, the dates only partially overlap and no scholarly consensus confirms the identification. The city was prosperous enough in this period, drawing wealth from Thracian trade routes, to maintain a consistent and high-quality silver coinage.