Intensive minting of in coinage is noted in eastern Macedonia and Chalkidike during the Archaic period, principally among the 'Thraco-Macedonian' people and the autonomous city-states. Their mints began to function after the mid-6th century BC and gradually ceased after the end of the Persian Wars. In 432/1 BC the mint of the Chalkidian League was instituted and continued functioning until 348 BC.
The coins were of exceptionally high quality and minted in great numbers. These two factors indicate the booming economic state of the issuing authority as well as its connection to the prevailing artistic trends in Greece. Many of these coins really are tiny works of art in the Archaic style. Their depictions present a great variety of subjects: legends of the founding of cities, regional cults, local products and even subjects inspired by works of art, chiefly statues.
The coins of the 'Thraco-Macedonian' peoples and of the autonomous cities were made of silver, according to varying standards of measure, and exported in large quantities to the markets of the eastern Mediterranean, attesting the close commercial links of the issuers with that area. Bronze coins were also minted by certain Chalkidian cities when their use became established in Greece after the end of the Peloponnesian War (end of the 5th century BC).
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