MACEDON. Mende. Circa 510-480 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 27 mm, 17.53 g). Mule advancing to left; on its back, bird standing left. Rev. Incuse square of mill-sail form. Asyut 195 (this coin). S. P. Noe: The Mende (Kaliandra) Hoard, in: ANS NNM 27 (1926), p. 6, 1. Rare. Beautifully toned and of powerful late Archaic style. Two test cuts on the obverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



In 1969, a large and extremely diverse hoard of archaic Greek silver coins was found near the town of Asyut in Middle Egypt, containing nearly 900 pieces struck by cities all over the Greek world, including many from Macedon and the Thraco-Macedonian region. Their study and subsequent publication by M. Price and N. Waggoner in 1975 allowed many archaic coin series to be re-dated, and the Asyut Hoard to this date forms one of the most important reference groups for archaic Greek coinage. Price and Waggoner concluded that the hoard was most likely buried in circa 475 BC, in a time when contacts between Hellas and Egypt intensified as more and more Greeks travelled to Egypt as merchants, mercenaries or scholars, prefiguring the later influx of Greeks into the country after its conquest by Alexander the Great.