EUBOIA. Eretria. Circa 170-150 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 32 mm, 16.99 g, 12 h), Kleon. Draped bust of Artemis to right, her hair elaborately arranged with a pony-tail at the back of her neck and raised tuft over her forehead; wearing a pendant necklace and with her bow and quiver over her left shoulder; border of dots. Rev. ΕΡΕΤΡΙΕΩΝ / ΚΛΕ-ΩΝ Steer walking to right on groundline, his head, garlanded with fillets, turned to face the viewer; all within a laurel wreath tied at the bottom. N.M. Waggoner, Coins from the William P. Wallace Collection, ANSMN 25, 1980, p. 10 = IGCH 1774, Babylon Hoard = Regling, ZfN 38, p. 113, 56 = Berlin 1928/367 (but struck from different dies). Extremely rare. Struck in high relief on a broad flan. Minor marks on the obverse, otherwise, extremely fine. Probably the first tetradrachm to be issued by Hellenistic Eretria. This is a somewhat enigmatic coin, primarily because of the way Artemis is portrayed on the obverse, which is different from the way she is shown on all the other tetradrachms we know of. The others all have rather wildly arranged hair, especially the knot at the back of her head; and the faces are thinner. What we probably have here is the first tetradrachm in this series. 1) the bust of Artemis used for ΚΛΕΩΝ was of an initial type that was immediately replaced by a more elaborate and stylistically more elegant version; 2) all of the tetradrachms have the same reverse type, which look as if they were all cut by the same die engraver; 3) the magistrate's name ΚΛΕ-ΩΝ, here above the exergual line, is paralleled by other tetradrachms with ΦΑΝΙ-ΑΣ and ΑΓΝ-ΩΝ; 4) the remaining tetradrachms have their magistrate's name below the exergual line: ΦΑΝΙΑΣ (the only magistrate to appear both ways), ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΣ, ΕΠΙΤΕΛΗΣ and ΧΑΡΙΔΑΜΟΣ. Thus, this small issue of late tetradrachms must have been struck within a relatively short period of time, but in three small subgroups: the first with the initial bust and the magistrate's name above the exergual line; the second with the final bust and the magistrate's name also above the exergual line; and the third - the change came under ΦΑΝΙΑΣ - moved the name to below the exergual line. https://cdn.nomosag.com/auctions/95/video00186.mp4?sv=2023-01-03&ss=b&srt=co&st=2025-03-10T16%3A25%3A27Z&se=2099-03-11T16%3A25%3A00Z&sp=rl&sig=i7RzFAqwYGMJUp3u71BbRyL3HhIAtR%2F8cUnRnTVQfyU%3D&rsct=video%2Fmp4