Thrace, Tetradrachm

This tetradrachm from the Thracian town of Odessos (today's Varna in Bulgaria) is an ancient imitation of a coin struck by Alexander the Great. Dissimilar to its model, the motif of the copy is less naturalistic: the head of the Greek hero Heracles wearing the lion's scalp and the enthroned Zeus are schematic and stylized. This procedure, called a "barbarism" in numismatics, is characteristic for mints outside the Hellenistic area.