Thrace - Abdère - Tétradrachme (c. 492-470). Magnifique... Lot 23

Thrace - Abdère - Tétradrachme (c. 492-470). Magnifique exemplaire parfaitement centré. Extrêmement rare, un seul exemplaire recensé par J. M. F. May. Exemplaire de la collection “Prospero” (Reuben Seifert 1910-2001) vente New York Sale XXVII du 4 janvier 2012, N° 219. 14.80g - May 60 - AMNG II, 17 Superbe à FDC - CHOICE AU The prolific silver mines of Thrace were to be exhausted about a century after the strike of these heavy and beautiful coins in Abdera - almost opposite the island of Thasos -, a city which had been established in 544 BC by citizens of Teos (south-west of ?zmir), fleeing Ionia invaded by the Persians. Among the city’s famous citizens, one finds Demokritos (the ‘laughing philosopher’) and the sophist Protagoras. Griffins (facing right) were depicted on the coinage of their lost home-city, which explains the choice of the iconography for the coinage of Abdera, and this ‘civic badge’ remained on the local coinage until its conquest by Philip II of Macedonia in the 350s BC. The myth of the griffin has been studied in A. Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters, Princeton 2000, and these creatures were meant to be the guardians of the sources of gold in central Asia. This series is believed to be subsequent to 491 BC, when the inhabitant falsely (?) suggested that the Thasians intended to revolt against Persia, leading Darius to require the destruction of the walls of Thasos and the delivery of their ships to Abdera