IONIA. Lebedos. Circa 150-143/2 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 16.67 g, 1 h), Anaxipolis, magistrate. Head of Athena to right, wearing triple-crested Attic helmet decorated with a laurel branch above the visor, and a drop earring in the form of a miniature Nike standing left and raising her right hand. Rev. ΛEBEΔIΩN / ANAΞI-ΠΟΛΙΣ Small owl standing right on club, head facing, between two filleted cornucopiae conjoined at their ends; all within laurel wreath. Amandry, Lebedos, Group III, 14 (this coin, D4/R21). Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue, a beautiful coin of bold Hellenistic style. Very minor areas of weakness on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.


Lebedos was a minor city situated on the Ionian coast between Teos and Ephesos. Its impressive stephanophoric coinage depicts Athena in monumental style on the obverse and her sacred bird, the owl, between two cornucopiae on the reverse. Amandry dated the majority of the Lebedean tetradrachms to circa 150-143/2 BC, as the few examples in the Kirikhan Hoard of 1972, whose latest coin was a Seleukid tetradrachm from 143/2, showed little to no wear. Compared to more prolific mints such as Kyme or Myrina, the scale of the Lebedean stephanophoric coinage must have been very small: out of more than 5000 silver coins in the Kirikhan Hoard, mostly tetradrachms, only 35 were stephanophoroi from Lebedos.