The Chalcidian League, Olynthus.
Tetradrachm circa 350, AR 14.44 g. Laureate head of Apollo r. Rev. Χ – A –Λ – ΚΙΔ – ΕΩΝ Seven-stringed cithara. SNG ANS 496 (this obverse die). De Nanteuil 773 (these dies). Robinson-Clement 128. A wonderful portrait of superb style struck on a very broad flan. Exceptionally well-centred and complete for the issue, wonderful iridescent tone and good extremely fine Privately purchased from Harlan J. Berk in the 1990s. Ex Gemini V, 2009, 59 and NGSA 9, 2015, Thyssen-Kaplan collection, 37 sales. From the Jacob K. Stein collection and on display at the Cincinnati Museum of Art from 1994 to 2008.

Graded Ch AU* Strike 5/5 Surface 5/5, NGC certification number 6030743-002.

Olynthus was an ancient Greek city situated on the Chalcidice Peninsula of north-western Greece. A Thracian people called the Bottiaeans inhabited Olynthus until 479 BC, when Persian forces killed them and handed the town over to local Greeks from Chalcidice. Though dominated for a time thereafter by Athens, Olynthus revolted against the latter in 424 BC and was subsequently able to maintain its independence. Olynthus became the chief Greek city west of the Strymon river, and in 432, during the early years of the Peloponnesian war, it founded and became the chief city of the Chalcidian League, a confederation of the Greek cities of the Chalcidice Peninsula. The League issued its own federal coinage soon from the beginning but it was only around the 420 BC that the tetradrachms, the most famous coins, appeared. On the obverse they depict the patron deity of the League, Apollo, and on the reverse one of his major attributes, the lyre. The tetradrachms continued as an important regular series until the coinage of the League ended with the rise of Philip II of Macedonia, who completely destroyed Olynthus and dissolved the League in 348 BC.