Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Triobol
| Issuer | Athens |
|---|---|
| Year | 449 BC - 404 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Owl of Athena (Athena noctua) standing facing, with head turned to face the viewer, rendered in the compact, stylized manner characteristic of Classical Athenian fractional coinage. An olive sprig with berries appears to the upper left, flanking the owl on either side. The ethnic abbreviation ΑΘΕ appears in the right field, identifying the issuing city of Athens. The compact flan and bold relief typify the Athenian "Wappenmünzen" successor series of the fifth century BC. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Athens struck these fractional silver pieces throughout the Periclean age and into the Peloponnesian War years, when the city's silver supply from the Laurion mines underpinned not just coinage but the entire Delian League's financial architecture. The triobol — worth half a drachm — was the precise daily wage paid to Athenian jurors under the system Pericles established around 450 BC, making these small coins instruments of democratic participation as much as commerce.
Production likely slowed or halted after 413 BC, when Spartan occupation of Decelea cut Athenian access to Laurion and forced the notorious emergency bronze coinage.