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Auction: 23007 - Ancient Coins Including the 'Kyrios' Collection of Greek Coins and featuring the 'Ostorius' Collection of Roman Gold
Lot: 31

The 'Kyrios' Collection | Olynthos, Chalkidian League, (432-348 BC), AR Tetradrachm, Magistrate Aristonos, c. 350 BC, laureate head of Apollo right, rev. XAL/KID/ION surrounding Kithara (lyre) with six strings, EPI-ARISTONOS in exergue, 14.52g, (Robinson & Clement 134 (obverse die); SNG ANS 497; Lanz 159, lot 79, (dies); Gulbenkian 422; Pozzi 753; SNG Lockett 1314), marvellous, struck in high relief, detailed, some very light scratches from a long-forgotten cleaning, but with pleasant toning emerging to the edges, extremely fine, a bargain at any price

PROVENANCE

Spink, 240, 27 June 2016, lot 1002, 'very light scratches from cleaning, extremely fine' - £4,000


This Tetradrachm dates to the final years of the Chalcidian League, before Phillip II of Macedon's brutal destruction of Olynthus, the league's principal city in 348. The League was a federal state, a sympoliteia, with Olynthus seemingly being the dominant city as the largest town within the league. Herodotus claimed there existed a feeling of kinship and unity on the Chalcidian peninsula, and Olynthus, founded as a joint colonial venture from a number of related Chalcidian cities, no doubt strengthened this union. The league formed at the start of the Peloponnesian war when they took the opportunity to break away from the Athenian lead Delian league, by then in effect, Athens' empire.

Their coinage, produced at Olynthus, boldly proclaimed their independence in an era where the whole Greek world went to war with each-other. Their identity as Chalcidians, prominently declared on the reverse, perhaps reflects also a prior ethnic unity and tribal identity not merely the invented product of an expedient secession. Chalcidian independence was occasionally curtailed not least by extensive Spartan military intervention in the 4th century, however, independence persevered until Phillip's ultimate annexation.

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Sold for
£7,000

Starting price
£4500