Abdera's tetradrachms from this period are magistrate-signed issues, with the eponymous magistrate name appearing alongside the city ethnic — an administrative practice that makes individual dies traceable to specific officials. Kalesikrates appears in May's corpus as a mid-fifth-century magistrate, placing this coin in the generation after Abdera had recovered from its sack by the Persian general Mardonius in 492 BC, when the city was burned and its population temporarily displaced.
The Thracian mint was prolific but geographically exposed. May references only two die pairings for this magistrate.
Abdera's tetradrachms from this period are magistrate-signed issues, with the eponymous magistrate name appearing alongside the city ethnic — an administrative practice that makes individual dies traceable to specific officials. Kalesikrates appears in May's corpus as a mid-fifth-century magistrate, placing this coin in the generation after Abdera had recovered from its sack by the Persian general Mardonius in 492 BC, when the city was burned and its population temporarily displaced.
The Thracian mint was prolific but geographically exposed. May references only two die pairings for this magistrate.