Tetradrachm - Polykrates

Abdera's tetradrachms of this period were issued under the city's distinctive magistrate-naming convention, with Polykrates serving as the eponymous official whose name authenticated the issue. The city on the Thracian coast was prosperous enough in the late fifth century to maintain a vigorous silver coinage, drawing on trade networks that connected the Aegean littoral to the Thracian interior. Abdera was also the birthplace of Democritus, whose atomic theory was being developed roughly contemporaneously with this striking.

May's die study remains the authoritative reference for this series; the Boston MFA specimen catalogued as #762 provides the principal comparative example for this type.