Dekadrachmon aus Akragas

Staatliche Münzsammlung München

Description

Obverse: quadriga with charioteer, galloping to the left, above eagle, below crab.

Reverse: Two eagles with slain hare on a rock, behind in the field a grasshopper.

The Dekadrachmon (tenfold Drachmon) was the largest and heaviest silver coin in the economy of Greek antiquity. In the every-day trade, it was rarely to be found, since its purchasing power was very high.

This Dekadrachmon from Akragas was made in ca. 410 BC and presents one of the peaks in the art of die-cutting of Greek antiquity. The dies are attributed to the artists Myron und Polycrates based on their signatures on respective Tetradrachma. The wealth of detail as well as the artistic elaboration of the motifs are at the highest level. The quadriga cannot, as has been suggested, be connected with the Olympic victory of the charioteer Exainetos, native from Akragas, in the year 412 BC. On the coin, the start of the turning manoeuvre is depicted. The crab is the city’s coat of arms in Akragas. The eagle is a popular motif on the coins of Akragas, the scene depicted on this coin corresponds to the words of the choir in Aischylos’s Agamemnon.