Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 105. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Akanthos. Circa 500-480 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.11 gm). Lion right, attacking bull kneeling to left; [floret in exergue] / Quadripartite incuse square. Cf. Desneux 26-27 (unlisted dies); AMNG III -; SNG ANS 6. Good VF, toned, minor porosity, slight double-strike on obverse. ($2500)

From the William and Louise Fielder Collection.

HISTORY and COINAGE of AKANTHOS

Akanthos, along with a number of other Thraco-Macedonian cities and tribes, began striking a great quantity of impressive sized silver coins at the end of the sixth century BC. The silver mines of Thrace were being exploited as Ionian Greeks established emporioi and colonies along the coast. The supply of precious metal proved a spur to increased trade, as well as a source of tribute for the expanding Persian empire, then planting its first footholds in northern Greece. Akanthos, well situated on the Chalcidian isthmus, was itself was a prosperous foundation of settlers from the island of Andros. In the Persian Wars Akanthos greeted the arrival of Xerxes with equanimity, and took a hand in the digging of a canal across the isthmus, so that the Persian fleet could avoid the treacherous waters surrounding the peninsula. Despite this support Xerxes' progress through the region was not entirely peaceful. According to Herodotus, the wild lions of the region played havoc with his supply train, coming in at night to maul his camels.