MACEDON. Amphipolis. 362/1 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 26 mm, 14.12 g, 6 h), "Type J, tripod issue". Laureate head of Apollo, three-quarters facing to right. Rev. ΑΜΦ-IΠΟ-ΛΙΤ-ΕΩΝ Race torch, with flame to right and with a small tripod to left, within a linear square surrounded by a square raised border; all within a shallow incuse square. AMNG III.2, 5 = Jameson 1942 = Lorber 31 (O16'/R25) = Traité II, 4 1089, pl. CCCXX, 13. Very rare. Struck in very high relief and of fine late Classical style. Minor scratch on the reverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.

From a Collection in Switzerland assembled prior to 2005.

After several failed attempts, in 437/6 BC the Athenians founded Amphipolis in Macedon to take advantage of the excellent timber for ship-building to be found in the surrounding forests and to gain access to the gold and silver mines of nearby Mount Pangaion. Both of these resources were important for Athenian imperial ambitions, but by the 370s the Amphipolitans claimed autonomy. This decision placed them under frequent threat from both the Athenians, and the neighboring kings of Macedon in the 360s.

Remarkably, it was in this very period of extended crisis for the city, that Amphipolitan engravers produced their finest work—a series of tetradrachms featuring facing portraits of Apollo of such high artistry that they are rightly compared to the greatest of the facing heads of the nymph on the roughly contemporary coinage of Thessalian Larissa and to the superlative facing head of Arethusa pioneered by Kimon at Syracuse at the end of the fifth century BC. As can be fully appreciated from the present piece, the Apollos of Amphipolis are of exceptional Classical beauty and have even been thought to reflect the influence of the sculptured metopes on the Parthenon of Athens.