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Tetradrachm - Marsyas
| Issuer | Samos |
|---|---|
| Year | 408 BC - 366 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Barron#– |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Forepart of a bull advancing to right, depicted in three-quarter view with musculature finely rendered. The magistrate's name ΜΑΡΣΥΑΣ appears in Greek letters above the bull, while an olive branch is placed to the left of the design. The ethnic abbreviation ΣΑ and a bee symbol appear below the bull's forepart. The entire design is contained within a shallow incuse square, a hallmark of early Samian coinage, giving the reverse a characteristic sunken border framing the composition. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
Samos operated its mint with unusual independence for an Aegean island under shifting imperial pressures — caught between Athenian hegemony and Persian interference throughout the late fifth and early fourth centuries. The Marsyas type tetradrachms fall squarely in a period when Samos was expelled of its entire citizen population by Athens in 365 BC and replaced with Athenian cleruchs, making coins struck toward the end of this range products of a politically hollow civic authority.
The absence of a Barron catalog number suggests this piece sits outside the firmly attributed sequence — either an unpublished die pairing or a specimen known only from a handful of examples.