Tetradrachm - Polykrates

Abdera's tetradrachms from this period reflect the city's unusual monetary confidence for a Thracian coastal polis — the mint maintained high silver standards well into the fourth century despite repeated disruptions, including the Triballi raids that periodically devastated the city's hinterland. The magistrate name Polykrates appears on this issue as part of Abdera's distinctive practice of naming a local official on each emission, a administrative habit that makes the coinage unusually traceable by issue sequence.

May's 1966 corpus remains the definitive reference for this series, and his die study placed #458 within a tightly clustered group sharing obverse die links with only a handful of other magistrate issues from the same decade.