Greece, Islands off Troas, Tenedos. Circa 100-70 BC. Tetradrachm (11.8 g.). Janiform head composed of a laureate and bearded head of Zeus to left and a diademed head of Hera to right. Rev. ΤΕΝΕΔΙΩΝ Double axe; below left, monogram of ΠΑ and bunch of grapes; below right, caps of the Dioscouri; all within laurel wreath. Callataÿ, Tenedos 80 (same dies = Pozzi 2289). Very rare. A splendid coin of excellent style, struck in high relief.

The early coinage of Tenedos bore janiform heads similar to the one here, but on those the male head was bare and without a laurel wreath. Those heads portrayed two characters from a local foundation legend: Tenes and, probably, his young step-mother and lover, Philonome. However, even in ancient times the combination of the janiform, male/female head and the double axe on the reverse gave rise to tales of the punishment for adultery (!), and by the end of the 5th century the head on the coins of Tenedos was transformed into one of Zeus and Hera. After a long break when the only silver coins struck were posthumous Lysimachus tetradrachms, Tenedos resumed minting silver during the 1st century BC with a series of tetradrachms and drachms, like the present example. These coins are uniformly very rare!