MACEDON. Acanthus. Ca. 470-430 BC. AR tetradrachm (28mm, 17.36 gm, 2h). NGC Choice AU S 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. Lion springing right, biting into hind quarters of bull kneeling to left with head raised; tunny fish left in exergue, thick beaded border / ΑΚΑ-Ν-ΘΙΟ-Ν, legend in raised letters on incuse band, around raised quadripartite square, all within shallow incuse square. Desneux 96. cf. SNG ANS 14-15 for later type of same issue. Scratch above the lion's mane noted for accuracy. Of the Archaic Greek coinages, the imagery of Acanthus is among the most striking and influential, depicting a lion attacking a bull, a motif soon adopted by several other cities. Lions prowled the hinterlands of Thrace and Macedon in this era and Herodotus recounts an episode when the baggage train of the Persian King Xerxes's army was set upon by lions during its march from Asia Minor into Greece proper. This particular rendering of the life-and-death struggle is especially powerful, with its yin-yang juxtapositioning of the two animals struck in living high relief.

HID09801242017

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