Didrachm circa 475-465, AR 20 mm, 8.42 g. Head of Athena r., wearing Attic helmet with three olive leaves. Rev. AΘE Owl standing r., head facing, olive sprig l., within incuse square. All within incuse circle. K. Schefold, Meisterwerke Griechischer Kunst, 458 (this coin). Seltman Group O, 473. Svoronos pl. 9, 16 and 19 (these dies). Starr, Group IV, 143. SNG Copenhagen 30 (these dies). Boston, MFA 1602. HGC 4, 1617 corr. (Starr Group). Very rare. A portrait of excellent style struck in high relief and with a superb old cabinet tone. Good very fine / about extremely fine Ex New York IV, 2002, 157 and Triton XXI, 2018, 419 sales. From the Harald Salvesen (1928-2016) collection. Only two years after the Greeks defeated the Persians at Salamis in 480, Cimon played an instrumental role in forming the Delian League, by which Athens took the lead role in a combined Greek navy and treasury. Thucydides describes the league merely as a pretext for continuing hostilities with the Persians, and there can be no question that over time the Athenians abused their privilege as de facto leaders. Cimon led most of the league's naval operations from c.476 to 463, and if the current view of the dating for Athenian didrachms is correct, we can say they were issued when Cimon was at his peak of influence. Cimon had especially strong ties to Sparta, which did not please all Athenians, yet seems to have allowed for comparatively peaceful co-relations. When in 475 a faction at Sparta proposed going to war against Athens to challenge its supremacy in the Delian League, the majority at Sparta opposed the idea, believing they could trust Cimon to deal fairly. But it was never smooth sailing between the cities, and in 465 it seems the Spartans would have invaded Attica had an earthquake and a rebellion by the helots not prevented it. Cimon's greatest victory occurred at the end of the didrachm period, when in c.466 he defeated the Persians at sea and on land at the Eurymedon River, allowing cities as far east as Phaeselis to join the Delian League. But, the careers of politicians and generals in Athens were fickle, and in 461, not long after he forced the rebellious Thasians to surrender, Cimon was ostracised for ten years. He returned briefly to his beloved city before he died in its service, during an expedition to eject the Persians from Cyprus and recover Athenian control of the seas. Please find here the video of the coin