Greek coins from Magna Graecia

[antwerpen2306]

I have posted all my coins for Metapontum, so I prefer to create a new topic for the Greek coins from Magna Graecia.

The first is an incusum stater from Krotoon :

obverse : tripod terminating in lion's feet, a heron to right, inscription : OPQ (koppa) = KRO

reverse : tripod incusum

period : ca 480-430 BC, 23 mm, 8.06 gr, 12 h.

reference : HNItaly2102,var, SNGAns257, BMCItaly18

Please, show your coins from Magna Graecia, albert

 

 

 

[kapphnwn]

Ar Nomos of Kroton 400-375 BC Obv Head of Hera Lakinia facing slightly right wearing stephane decorated with palmets Rv Herakles leaning left HN 2167 7.71 grms 22 mm Photo by W. Hansen

This coin was one of the many that were influenced by the 3/4 facing heads that had just been issued out of Syracuse. These images set at a slight angle from facing have to be the most difficult to execute properly and it is a testament to the skill of the engravers at Kroton  and the other civic engravers as well to have willingly accepted the challenge.  

[Kazuma78]

Beautiful coin! 

[Brennos]

stunning @kapphnwn !!

One of my favorite bronze coin is from Rhegion

 

Bruttium, Rhegium. Bronze circa 351-280, Æ 11.72 g. Lion's mask facing. Rev. PHΓINΩN Laureate head of Apollo r.; behind, leaf. SNG ANS 687. Historia Numorum Italy 2534a. 

----------------

And the first coin minted in occident :

Bruttium, Sybaris 540-530 BC, Stater 7,77g
Spagnoli group A1

[Alegandron]

AR and AE


Campania Neapolis 320-300 BC AR Didrachm Nomos Nymph Achelous



Campania, Neapolis,
c. 275-250 BCE;
AE (g 4,99; mm 18; h 6);
NEOΠOΛITΩN, laureate head of Apollo l.; r., Θ,
Rv. Man-faced bull advancing r. crowned by flying Nike, below IΣ.
Sambon 663; HNItaly 589; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG ANS 474.
Beautiful light green patina
PLATE COIN - Listed Potamikon pg 232 Plate 343

[Alegandron]

Bruttium Lokroi Eizephyrioi 300-268 BC AE 23 Athena Pegasus

Bruttium Rhegion 415-387 BCE AE 11mm 2.46g Facing lion hd - Laureate hd of Apollo L SNG ANS 697 var

[rNumis]

This is my Litra from Eryx. Tiny little thing - 0.63g. Quite scarce, and how can you not like those Sicilian crabs?!

 

 

(sorry for the poor image...I really need to work on a better photography setup 🙂).

[Di Nomos]

I have several coins from Sicily & Italy, but will show what I consider the prettiest. It is a stater from Terina in Bruttium, struck c. 380 - 340 BC. Nymph Terina on the obv. & Nike holding a dove on the rev.  Both sides are very attractive.

This coin was in Ancient Joe's collection, and I'm using his excellent photo. And if it was worth residing in his collection for a while, it is certainly worth a permanent home in mine.

[Ursus]

That's a nice example of a Kroton stater, @antwerpen2306. It's noteworthy that the tripod on these likely is a reference to the Delphic Oracle. According to the founding myth of Kroton, this oracle advised the city’s founding father Myscellus to establish a settlement in Italy.

 

Here is my example, which unfortunately misses much of the bird:

Bruttium, Kroton, AR nomos, ca. 480–430 BC. Obv: retrograde ϘPO; tripod with legs terminating in lion’s feet; to left, heron standing r. Rev: incuse tripod with central pellet. 18mm, 7.92g. Ref: HN Italy 2102; SNG ANS 261-2. Ex Teutoburger 138, lot 856 (part of); ex Albrecht&Hoffmann, auction XXIV, lot 67. (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-delphic-oracle-and-pythagorean-numerology-a-tripod-stater-from-kroton.387373/)

Bruttium, Croton, AR nomos, ca. 480–430 BC. Obv: retrograde ϘPO; tripod with legs terminating in lion’s feet; to left, heron standing r. Rev: incuse tripod with central pellet. 18mm, 7.92g. Ref: HN Italy 2102; SNG ANS 261-2. Ex Teutoburger 138, lot 856 (part of); ex Albrecht&Hoffmann, auction XXIV, lot 67.

 

[antwerpen2306]

@Brennos exceptional coin.

I have a 1/3 stater, but not so nice as yours. The name of Sybaris is in the exergue : YM , retrogade and the sigma reclined (exact?) as on jours.

Seizes : 18 mm, 2.21 gr

Ref : HNItaly,1736

Sybaris was the oldest and most famous of the Peloponnesean colonies in Magna Graecia and founded ca 709 BC (Eusebios). Sybaris would have existed 210 years (Pseudo-Scymnos) and has been destroyes in 511/510 BC. So the date, given by Eusebios looks correct. The town was situated between yhe Crathis en the Sybaris river, which give the name and has been destroyed by Krotoon, the inhabitants flying to Laos and Skidros, two foundations of Sybaris as was Poseidonia. albert

PS : how to write the Greek characters ?

 

 

 

 

[rNumis]

This is hefty coin that I got last year from Roma. Quite a contrast to the tiny Eryx litra I showed earlier.

APULIA | Luceria - Cast Quincunx

217-212 BC
Æ 42.32g
HGC 601 (S), Vecchi 2013 345
ex Roma Numismatics E-Sale 91 (December 2021), lot 60

 

(sorry again for the bad image...I'll retake all these at some point)

[antwerpen2306]

@rNumis beautiful coin, I am looking for a casted coin, but was not lucky till now and I have no coins of Apulia to show. IMO the imag is good, I could not do it better, so..

As I have no coin from Apulia, I show a coin of an unknow town : Phistelia in Campania.

obverse : facing male head

reverse : dolphin, barlain grain and mussel shell, oskian inscription  

period : 325-275 BC

sizes : 11 mm, 032 grn 12 h

ref : HNItaly613, Sambon 831. albert

[rNumis]

Hi @antwerpen2306 That's really very nice! I've always wanted one of these.

 

In my ongoing sweep through the earlier 20th C auctions, I've found 22 plated examples of coins from Phistelia so far. You can see them here:

Phistelia at rNumis

Over half of those 22 are the much heavier didrachms, I suppose because they sell for much bigger $, and back then it would have been an easier decision to photograph them.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by rNumis
Prettier link text

[antwerpen2306]

Thanks @rNumis very interesting, I will also try to do a sweep, very intersting but it takes a lot of time, I think and I am only 1 week on two at home in Antwerp.

Staying in Campania, two staters from Neapolis

obverse : head of the nymph Parthenope

reverse : a bull with a head of a man, a flying Mike with a crown on top, 

  at left of Parthenope, an image of Artemis Phosphoros with a torch in every hand, under the head : APTEMI

on the reverse : N between the legs and Neopoliton in exergue.

HNItaly 579, 20 mm, 7.3 gr, 6h. 

320-275 BC

 

 

HNItaly 586, 21 mm, 5,12 gr, 2 h.

275-250 BC.

albert

 

[kapphnwn]

Sybaris Ar Nomos 550-510 BC Obv Bull standing left head reverted. Rv The same  incuse and facing right, HN 1729 7.13 grms 27 mm Photo by W. Hansen

Sybaris is given credit for the initiating the _incusum" or spread flan nomoi. The city fell as a result of one of the many epidemic wars the plagued the region as the various Greek city states located on the southern Italian coastline fought each other for dominance.  

[antwerpen2306]

@kapphnwn beautiful coin, this coin and that of @Brennos are some of the most beautiful I have seen. albert

[antwerpen2306]

two AE 19 coins from Neapolis with the head of Apolloon and the classical reverse, dated 275-250 BC.

 

[AncientJoe]

Here are two of my favorites, stealing the auction descriptions as I haven't had a chance to do a proper writeup in a long time:

 

Tetradrachm circa 300-280, AR 17.29 g. PHΓINOΣ Laureate head of Apollo l., long hair falling in curls over neck. Rev. Lion's head facing. SNG ANS 676. Historia Numorum Italy 2501 (these dies). SNG Lloyd 700 (these dies). AMB 229 (these dies). Herzfelder 115bis. Historia Numorum Italy 2501.

Ex NAC sale 8, 1995, 115.

Perhaps during the 290's, but conceivably a decade before, Agathocles of Syracuse was involved in a poorly recorded campaign in Bruttium in which he captured Hipponium and Croton. Rhegium, as an ancient enemy of Syracuse, which had burnt Rhegium nearly two centuries before, should have been involved in some way. Our coin seems closely related to certain issues from Syracuse and Punic Sicily, and moreover depicts the solar deity Apollo and a lion, which, although the emblems of the city since time immemorial, seem singularly appropriate to the typology favoured by the tyrants of the new hellenistic world. These splendid dies could well have been engraved by the master who cut the best dies of the Agathocles Kore coinage and perhaps also those of the vastly rare Ptolemaic-type gold stater of the same ruler.

 

BRUTTIUM, Kroton. Circa 400-325 BC. AR Nomos (20mm, 7.70 g, 11h). Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath; KPOTΩNIA-TAΣ around / The Herakliskos Drakonopnigon: the Infant Herakles, nude, crouching facing on rock, head left, strangling a serpent in each hand. Attianese 163 (this coin illustrated and enlarged); HN Italy 2157; SNG ANS 386 (same dies); SNG Lloyd 617–8; Basel 199; Dewing 513; Gulbenkian 132–3; Jameson 433–4; Kraay & Hirmer 271; de Luynes 735 (same dies).

From the Gasvoda Collection, purchased from Numismatica Ars Classica. Ex Gorny & Mosch 219 (10 March 2014), lot 19; Giessener Münzhandlung 55 (14 May 1991), lot 30.

From the consignor: The reverse type, the infant Herakles strangling two serpents, is highly artistic and was struck during a time of superbly talented engravers working at the main coin-producing cities of Magna Graecia. This is a rare type and certainly among the best survivors of those coins. The father of Herakles was Zeus, who had impregnated Herakles's mortal mother, Alkmene. Hera was naturally unhappy with the impending birth and had two serpents placed in the crib of the infant Herakles. Being the son of Zeus, the babe easily strangled them.

 

[dougsmit]

Sybaris before the 510 BC destruction also issued minor silver fractions that are many times more scarce than the larger nomos denomination.  My favorite one has the old style MY (sigma upsilon) monogram and four dots which struke me as a trias denomination indicator but that is not always consistent with the prevailing view among experts. CNG called it an obol which I can not accept. 

I am no fan of forcing Athenian names on coins of other cities unless there is some evidence suggesting that is correct.  There are other coins with other dot patterns so the truth is that I have no idea what to call the 0.25g little coin.  My somewhat worn nomos weighs 7.07g which would make the smaller coin 1/28 of it.  I have no idea how the system worked below the one third as shown above by antwerpen2306.  

 

Much later but still a favorite of mine is the 420-400 BC, 7.4g AR 'stater' of Kroton featuring an eagle on deer head.  In this game, coins that late are almost 'modern'.  😁

[Steve]

Great coins, Mentor ... actually, all the coins have been amazing (great coin-effort!)

 

Ummm, Magna Graecia, eh?

... here are a few of my old examples

 

 

BRUTTIUM, Rhegion. AR Litra (below)

Circa 445-435 BC

Diameter: 13 mm

Weight: 0.71 grams

Obverse: Facing lion’s scalp

Reverse: RECI within wreath

Reference: Herzfelder p. 89, B; HN Italy 2485

Other: 3h … toned, some porosity

Ex-stevex6 … from the collection of a Southern Pathologist. Ex Antioch Associates

 

CAMPANIA, Cales,  Æ20 (below)

Circa 265-240 BC

Diameter: 19.5 mm

Weight: 7.29 grams

Obverse: Laureate head of Apollo left; [uncertain symbol to right]

Reverse: Man-headed bull standing right, head facing; star above, [uncertain symbol or letter below]

Reference: HN Italy 436

Other: 5h … green-brown patina

Ex-stevex6 … from the Camerata Romeu Collection

 

 

Italy Campania Teanum Sidicinum Æ20 (below)

Date: 265-240 BC

Diameter: 20.5 mm

Weight: 7.05 grams

Obverse: Helmeted head of Athena left
Reverse: TIANO, Rooster standing right, star behind

Reference: SNG ANS 626

Other: a splendid example from a rare city.

Ex-stevex6

Edited June 14, 2022 by Steve

[Alegandron]

Campania CAPUA AE 14-5mm 216-211 Hera Oscan Grain ear Hannibal capital Italia SNG Fr 517 SNG ANS 219 HN Italy 500 EE Clain Stefanelli



Campania CAPUA AE Uncia 216-211 BCE Diana Boar Hannibal capital Italia SCARCE



Campania CAPUA AE Semuncia 216-211 BCE Juno Xoanon Hannibal capital Italia SCARCE

[ambr0zie]

One for me

5.70 g 19.04 mm
Campania, Suessa Aurunca
268 – 240 BC
OBV:Laureate head of Apollo left, O at right
REV: SVESANO, Man-headed bull, Nike flying above, crowning bull with laurel branch or wreath. SNG ANS 606, SNG Cop. 586

 

 

[antwerpen2306]

I did not know that this part of Greek coins had so many collectors. I have never seen so many so beautiful coins as here, thanks. albert

[antwerpen2306]

two other coins from Krotoon :

first a triobol with Pagasos on the reverse, ca 480-440 BC HNItaly 2127.

 

 

and a stater, ca 350-300 BC, HNItaly 2172. albert

 

 

[NewStyleKing]

Besides being the spawn of Greece these colonies of various city states inherited the feuds of their originators. If you stood still you were attacked and annihilated. Also the natives didn't like you, nor the phoenicians, latins and co hated you, so you were most likely constantly in a situation of almost perpetual warfare.  Warfare meant spending, spending meant silver and that all begat coins. The quality of Magna Grecia die cutting was way beyond that of the base originators usually. Probably as a source of pride. Sicily was almost in continually at war, with outsiders and itself. The tetradrachm coinages of the major cities are common and similar without being the same. They are very common. Although reasonable examples are not too expensive, Magna Greece coins are premium products and are always in the top prices paid.

 

NSK=John