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Tetradrachm - Polemon, Alketes and Timo...
| Issuer | Athens |
|---|---|
| Year | 125 BC - 124 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 16.73 g |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with flowing hair cascading in locks beneath the helmet. The goddess wears an Attic helmet adorned with a decorated visor and a prominent crest, with a serpent visible at the bowl. The portrait exhibits refined workmanship with individualized facial features, within a beaded border. |
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| Reverse description | Athena's owl (Glaux) standing to right with head facing front, perched upon a Panathenaic amphora; the names of the magistrates Polemon, Alketes, and Timokrates are inscribed across the field in Greek characters. A tripod symbol appears to the left, the letter H is incused on the amphora, and the ethnic ΣΦ appears below the amphora. The entire design is surrounded by an olive wreath, a hallmark of the late Athenian New Style coinage. |
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| Additional information |
This tetradrachm belongs to the New Style series introduced by Athens around 196 BC, a coinage reform designed to restore Athenian commercial credibility after decades of monetary irrelevance. The magistrate combination of Polemon, Alketes, and Timo dates this piece precisely within that sequence — Thompson's die study remains the essential reference for placing individual issues within the series' chronology. By the 120s BC, New Style tetradrachms were circulating well beyond Attica, accepted across the Aegean as a reliable trade currency at a moment when Rome had not yet imposed a single dominant silver standard on the eastern Mediterranean.