Well Pedigreed and Superb
MACEDON, Chalkidian League. Circa 356 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 14.43 g, 12h). Olynthos mint. Laureate head of Apollo right / Kithara; small EΠI ΛEAΔOΣ below, X-A-Λ-KIΔ-EΩN around. Robinson & Clement group P, 94j (A61/P81 – this coin); SNG ANS 501 (same dies); Traité IV 942 (same dies). EF, toned. A superb example.
Ex Freeman & Sear FPL 2 (Summer 1994), lot B34; Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection (Part III, Sotheby’s New York, 4 December 1990), lot 41; Leu 15 (4 May 1976), lot 182; R.A. van Every Collection; Walther Niggeler Collection (Part I, Leu/Munzen und Medallien, 3 December 1965), lot 221; D.M. Robinson Collection; Ars Classica XVI (3 July 1933), lot 980.
Originally founded during the Peloponnesian Wars in 432/1 BC the Chalkidian league was a defensive coalition of cities. It adopted a progressive constitution on the initiative of its leading state, Olynthos. The league was predominantly a federal state with sovereign powers and a federal coinage. The league adopted Apollo and the lyre as its symbols.
The League became very powerful in the 4th century and won control of certain cities from the weaker Macedonian kings like Amyntas III. The League dissolved when its principal city fell to Philip II in 348BC.
The power of the league is reflected in its coinage, which was the most important in the Macedonian area during the first half of the 4th century BC.
