BITHYNIA. Kalchedon. Circa 480-450 BC. Drachm (Silver, 16 mm, 4.51 g, 1 h). Bare head of Kalchas (?) to left. Rev. Wheel of four spokes within shallow circular incuse. BMC -. RG -. SNG Copenhagen -. SNG von Aulock 6980 (this coin). Extremely rare and with a wonderful late Archaic rendering of Kalchas (?). Somewhat porous and with minor flan faults, otherwise, very fine.


Kalchedon, situated across the Bosporos from Byzantion, carried the rather unfortunate nickname of 'City of the Blind' in Antiquity. According to Herodotos (Hist. 4.114), this was based on a saying by the 5th-century Persian general, Megabazos, who remarked that the Kalchedonians must have been blind for founding their city seventeen years before the foundation of Byzantion on a site far inferior to that of the latter. Indeed, Byzantion would grow into one of the most important cities of the ancient world, in contrast to nearby Kalchedon.

Perhaps seeking some claim to fame, the Kalchedonians appear to have depicted Kalchas on their coinage, one of the great prophets of Greek mythology. In the Iliad, Kalchas was often at odds with Agamemnon due to this visions, which predicted both the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, to Artemis so that the Greek fleet might set sail for Troy, and the necessity of returning Chryseis, a Trojan girl given as spoils to the king, to her father, Chryses, so that Apollo would lift the plague sent to decimate the Greeks. It is certainly ironic that the 'City of the Blind' would select one of Greece's greatest seers as a motif for its coins, even more so as it seems to be based on nothing more than the superficial similarity between Kalchas' name and that of the city.