Lovely Attic Akanthos Tetradrachm

CNG 99, Lot: 62. Estimate $5000. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Akanthos. Circa 500-480 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.08 g). Attic standard. Lion left, attacking bull crouching right; floral ornament in exergue / Quadripartite incuse square. Desneux 7 (D6/R– [unlisted rev. die]); cf. AMNG III/2, 11; SNG ANS 8; SNG Ashmolean 2198; SNG Berry 2; Leu 86, lot 325 (same obv. die). Good VF, toned. High relief.

Akanthos is located in the Chalkidike near the point where the Akte peninsula joins the mainland. In the late sixth century BC, this city began striking coinage, apparently to facilitate the increased trade with those Attic Greek colonies and emporia that had recently been established there. During this same period, as the Persian Empire began its westward expansion into Europe, these coins were also used to pay tribute, part of the Medizing process, in which the locals allied themselves with the Persians. During the Greco-Persian Wars (499-479 BC), Akanthos supported the Persians and, in early 480 BC, provided labor for the construction of a canal across the peninsula, so that the Persian fleet could avoid sailing around the treacherous waters below Mt. Athos at the peninsula's southernmost tip (Hdt. 7. 22-24, 115, 117).

The lion and bull design is common to the tetradrachms of Akanthos from the sixth to the early fourth century BC. The earliest tetradrachms are characterized by thick, dumpy flans, a variable style of incuse, and the head of the lion in three-quarter perspective. Subsequent issues, however, have a flan that is relatively thinner and broader, an incuse of a more regularly quadripartite style, and the head of the lion in profile. The floral symbol in the exergue, which first appeared on some of the earliest tetradrachms, became more stylized in subsequent issues and used other symbols as well, such as the fish. Subsequently, a pellet-in-annulet appeared above the lion in the upper field of the obverse, followed by the addition of a subsidiary letter, and, finally, letter combinations and symbols to distinguish later issues in this large series. The series was initially struck on the Attic standard, but when the city became an ally of the Persians in 480 BC, they adopted the Phoenician standard that was common among Persian coinages of the time.