Akanthos, located in eastern Greece, was marked by Thucydides as a city of collaborators during the Greco-Persian wars. Nevertheless, with an economy fueled mainly by the silver pulled from the nearby mines of Halkidiki, it quickly became an important regional center which produced a widely circulating currency starting in 530 BC. After nearly 160 years of striking coins, the city’s imagery was becoming quite refined.

Usually depicting a lion attacking a bull, these coins are seemingly an artistic legacy of the early Lydian coinage from just across the Aegean Sea. Today, these stunning coins are recognized as true artistic gems of the archaic Greek world.

As part of the Hermann Weber collection this particular piece is pedigreed back to 1862. After moving to London from Germany in 1851, Weber established himself as a medical authority in the treatment of consumption. Through his work as a board member of the Royal Numismatic Society and numismatic author, Weber began assembling what is now considered one of the most important collections of ancient Greek coins of modern history. After a number of years, this coin also passed through the hands of Henri Hoffman, Edward Wigan, and Ferdinand Bompois. The August 19th century pedigree lends quite a sense of history and gravitas to the coin.