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Tetradrachm - Kleinias
| Issuer | Apollonia Pontika |
|---|---|
| Year | 370 BC - 340 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
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| Obverse description | Facing left, the youthful laureate head of Apollo rendered in fine archaic-transitional style, with elaborate curling locks framing the face and falling behind the neck. The facial features are delicately modeled with a refined, idealized quality characteristic of fourth-century Greek coinage from the Black Sea region. A laurel wreath crowns the head, with individual leaves rendered in high relief. The flan is slightly irregular, as is typical of hand-struck coinage of this period. No legend appears on the obverse. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Apollonia Pontika — the Black Sea colony founded by Miletus in the early seventh century — was a prosperous enough trading hub that its silver coinage circulated well beyond its own harbor. The anchor type to which this tetradrachm belongs became so closely associated with the city that ancient sources used it as a visual shorthand for Apollonia itself. The magistrate name Kleinias appearing on this issue places it within a relatively narrow administrative window during the mid-fourth century, when the city was navigating the competing pressures of Thracian tribal power to its north and Macedonian expansion beginning to reshape the wider region.