Tenedos (BC 490-480) Didrachm

ca 490-480 BC. Didrachm (8.94g, 9h). Janiform head: bearded male face to left and female face to right, both have archaic, almond-shaped facing eyes and wear a stephane, and share a disc earring with a rosette pattern and a double-curved pendant; necklace of pearls on neck / TENE (retrograde), helmeted and bearded male head left, wearing pearl necklace; all within incuse square. Extremely rare. Lightly toned and of superb late Archaic-early Classical style; a magnificent coin of great beauty. Slightly porous surfaces, nearly EF.

The early coinage of Tenedos is quite complex, and seems to begin in the last quarter of 6th century BC with didrachms that bear a male/female janiform head and a double axe on the reverse. This early coinage seems to have been replaced by a much rarer second coinage, of which the present piece is the finest known. The axe was replaced by the helmeted head of a warrior (assuming the heads on the obverse are divinities, this could be Tenes). The great similarity to issues of Lampsakos probably convinced the Tenedos authorities to return to their earlier double axe reverse type. The dating of this coin is based on similarity in style to late archaic issues of Athens (Starr Group I).