Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 138 18-19 May 2023
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Olynthus, the Chalcidian League.
Tetradrachm circa 361-358, AR 14.47 g. Laureate head of Apollo r. Rev. X – A – Λ – ΚΙΔ – EΩN Six-stringed cithara; below, [ΕΠ]Ι ΟΛYΜΠΙΧ[ΟΥ]. SNG ANS 508. Gulbenkian 423. Boston, MFA 581 (these dies). SNG Copenhagen 245. Robinson-Clement, Group T, 115.
A bold portrait and a light iridescent tone, reverse slightly
off-centre, otherwise about extremely fine
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.
Tetradrachm circa 361-358, AR 14.47 g. Laureate head of Apollo r. Rev. X – A – Λ – ΚΙΔ – EΩN Six-stringed cithara; below, [ΕΠ]Ι ΟΛYΜΠΙΧ[ΟΥ]. SNG ANS 508. Gulbenkian 423. Boston, MFA 581 (these dies). SNG Copenhagen 245. Robinson-Clement, Group T, 115.
A bold portrait and a light iridescent tone, reverse slightly
off-centre, otherwise about extremely fine
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.