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Tetrobol
| Issuer | Bisaltai |
|---|---|
| Year | 475 BC - 465 BC |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | Warrior or rider depicted as a horseman advancing to the right, seated upon a prancing horse shown in profile; the horse is rendered with naturalistic detail, its forelegs raised in a lively pose. The figure atop the horse is shown without elaborate dress, consistent with the archaic Macedonian tribal coinage tradition of the Bisaltai. The design occupies the full flan, with the horse's body dominating the field in bold, vigorous relief characteristic of early fifth-century BC Greek celature. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Bisaltai were a Thracian tribe whose territory in the Strymon river valley sat directly astride the main overland route between Greece and the Aegean coast — a position that gave them outsized commercial importance relative to their political weight. Their coinage, struck in the decade before Philip I of Macedon absorbed the region, drew on the same rich silver deposits that would later underpin Macedonian expansion. This tetrobol belongs to a tribal coinage that effectively ended when Bisaltian independence did.