Tetradrachm

In Athens

In Athens it replaced the earlier "heraldic" type of didrachms and it was in wide circulation from to . [[File:Complete strike of Athenian tetradrachm..jpg|alt=|thumb|280px|An Athenian tetradrachm from after 499 BC, showing the head of [[Athena]] and the [[Owl of Athena|owl]]]] The transition from didrachms to tetradrachms occurred during –510 BC; the abandonment of the "heraldic"-type didrachms and the Archaic tetradrachms (early "owls") of the polis of Athens apparently took place shortly after the Battle of Salamis, 480 BC. This transition is supported by the discovery of contemporary coin hoards, and more particularly of a coin hoard found on the Acropolis in 1886.

The Athenian tetradrachm was widely used in transactions throughout the ancient Greek world, including in cities politically unfriendly to Athens. Athens had silver mines in state ownership, which provided the bullion. Most well known were the silver mines of Laurium in Athenian countryside. The Athenian tetradrachm was stamped with the head of Athena on the obverse, and on the reverse the image of the owl of Athena, the iconographic symbol of the Athenian polis, with a sprig of olive and a crescent for the moon. According to Philochorus, it was known as glaux (γλαύξ, 'little owl') throughout the ancient world and "owl" in present-day English language numismatics. The design was kept essentially unchanged for over two centuries, by which time it had become stylistically archaic. To differentiate their currency from the rival coinage of Aegina using the Aeginetic stater of about 12.3 grams, Athens minted its tetradrachm based on the "Attic" standard of 4.3 grams per drachma. The vast number of "owls-tetradrachms" available those days mainly from the silver mines of Laurium financed the several achievements of Athens, such as the reconstruction of the Acropolis and building the Parthenon, as well as many wars, including the Peloponnesian War.

In other polities

The tetradrachm's use as a currency was soon adopted by many other city-states of the ancient Greece, Asia Minor, Magna Grecia and other Greek colonial cities throughout the Mediterranean Sea. With the armies of Alexander the Great it spread to other Greek-influenced areas of Asia.

Tetradrachms were common as trade coins.

File:Bactrian bronze coin with a Kushan rider (c. 100–300 AD).jpg|Tetradrachm from Bactria under the Kushan Empire –300 AD. File:Olympia-02.jpg|Tetradrachm of Olympia File:Artavasdes II coin.png|Tetradrachm of Artavazd II of Armenia File:Sparta-02.jpg|Tetradrachm of Sparta File:Abdera coin (May 147).jpg|Tetradrachm of Abdera File:Troy Tetradrachm.jpg|Tetradrachm of Troy File:Kyme-02.jpg|Tetradrachm of Kyme File:Bruttium-Rhegion-coin-435-425-BC.jpg|Tetradrachm of Rhegion File:Greek Silver Tetradrachm of Naxos (Sicily).jpg|Tetradrachm of Naxos File:Tetradrachme van Aetna (tweede kwart 5e eeuw v.C.) KBR 27-8-2016 11-45-16 (square).jpg|Tetradrachm of Aetna, 5th C. BC File:Tetradrachme.wmt.jpg|Tetradrachm of Alexander the Great File:Cleopatra Thea.jpg|Tetradrachm of Cleopatra Thea

References

References

1. "Tetradrachm".
2. Androulakis, Yiannis. "History of the Greek coins". Fleur-de-Coin.
3. [[Aristotle]], Athenian Constitution, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0046%3Achapter%3D22%3Asection%3D7 22.7]
4. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=glau/c γλαύξ], Liddell & Scott
5. Philochorus: Scholion to Aristophanes, ''Birds'' 1106.
6. Kraay, C.M. The archaic owls of Athens: classification and chronology.
7. Otto Mørkholm. (31 May 1991). "Early Hellenistic Coinage from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamaea (336–188 BC)". Cambridge University Press.