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Tetrobol - Nymphagoras
| Issuer | Abdera |
|---|---|
| Year | 415 BC - 395 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 15.0 mm |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A dolphin leaping to the left is depicted within a beaded square border, a hallmark device of Abderite coinage. The magistrate's name ΝΥΜΦΑΓΟΡΗΣ is distributed around the four sides of the square frame in Greek letters, reading ΝΥΜ on the left, ΦΑ across the top, ΓΟΡ on the right, and ΗΣ along the bottom. The incuse square field surrounding the inner beaded border is characteristic of the city's coin types of this period. The engraving is crisp, consistent with the high-quality die-cutting associated with Abdera's late fifth-century coinage. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΝΥΜ ΦΑ ΓΟΡ ΗΣ |
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| Additional information |
Abdera's coinage is unusual in that many issues name not a magistrate in the conventional sense but an eponymous citizen — a rotating civic official whose name authenticated the emission. Nymphagoras was one such figure, placing this tetrobol within Abdera's well-documented series of named-magistrate silver struck during the city's period of considerable prosperity under Athenian commercial influence in the northern Aegean. The city had been refounded by Tean refugees fleeing the Persian advance around 545 BC, and that colonial identity seems to have driven Abdera's unusually consistent commitment to fine silver coinage across two centuries.
May's corpus remains the definitive reference for this series, with SNG Copenhagen 336 providing the closest parallel for die alignment and fabric.