Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 318. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Abdera. Circa 411-386 BC. AR Didrachm (6.18 gm). Magistrate Orchamos. Griffin seated left, right forepaw raised / Lion standing right within linear square; EP O-PX-AM-O around. May, Abdera, 259 (A195/P220); AMNG II pl. II, 21; BMC Thrace -; SNG Copenhagen -; Jameson 1037 (same obverse die). VF, well centered, light porosity and surface corrosion. ($750)

In 411 BC, in the middle of the Peloponnesian War, the cities of Thrace rose in revolt against their Athenian overlords. Abdera proclaimed its support of this revolt through the means of a new coin type. The magistrate Orchamos introduced a silver half stater on the Aeginetan weight standard, rejecting the Athenian Attic standard. And certainly the lion represented Abdera’s resolve to free itself from Athenian rule! But even at this stage of the war Athens remained strong enough to put down the revolt by 407 BC. The half stater denomination and its associated types were never issued again. This rare half stater, with its symbols of independence and resolve is one of the few Greek coin types, that can be closely tied to a specific historical event of the Peloponnesian War.