MACEDON, Sermyle. Circa 500-470 BC. AR Tetradrachm (28mm, 16.61 g). Attic standard. Warrior, holding spear aloft in right hand, on horseback right; SER-MVΛ-I-AOИ around, pellet to left; below, hound running right; all on three ground lines, the middle composed of pellets / Quadripartite incuse square. AMNG III/2, 1 var. (no hound); Liampi pl. 24, 24; HGC 3, 661 var. (same); SNG ANS 721 var. (no pellet); SNG Spencer 125; Asyut 219. Lightly toned, traces of find patina, patches of granularity. Near EF. Very rare, and exceptional for issue.
Ex Leu 71 (24 October 1997), lot 131.
Very little is known of the early history of Sermyle. During the Greco-Persian Wars, the city supplied troops and ships to the Persians, and afterward became a member of the Thracian District of the Delian League. During the Peloponnesian War, many of their citizens were killed by the Peloponnesians, and Sermyle was turned over to the Chalkidians until the Peace of Nikias, whereafter the city appears under Athenian control. In the 4th century BC, Sermyle joined the Chalkidian League, and was apparently one of the cities destroyed by Philip II, as it disappears from the historical record after 348 BC. The coinage of the city was small, with a short issue of silver tetradrachms and fractions in the early 5th century, and a limited issue of bronze in the early 4th BC.
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