LUCANIA, Metapontion. Circa 540-510 BC. AR Nomos (27mm, 8.11 g, 12h). Ear of barley with seven grains; META upward in right field / Incuse ear of barley with seven grains. Noe Class VI, 115 (same dies); Gorini 12; HN Italy 1479; SNG ANS 209 (same dies). Beautiful old cabinet tone. EF. An exceptional example.
Ex Nomos 28 (22 May 2023), lot 1121; Abecassis Collection (Leu 81, 16 May 2001), lot 15; Spink Zürich 20 (6 October 1986), lot 39; Kricheldorf FPL 100 (Autumn 1975), no. 5; Leu 2 (25 April 1972), lot 30.
Metapontion, originally named Sybaris, was an Achaian colony of very early foundation, though the precise details of its origin are shrouded in uncertainty. Following the destruction of its first foundation by the Samnites, it was refounded, as Metapontion, early in the 7th century BC by settlers under the leadership of Leukippos, who was thereafter revered as the city founder. The great prosperity of the city — attested by the extent of its archaic silver coinage commencing in the mid 6th century BC — was based on agriculture. Situated on the Gulf of Tarentum, Metapontion occupied a plain of extraordinary fertility watered by the rivers Bradanos and Kasuentos. Its standard coin type is an ear of barley, a tribute to the source of Metapontine wealth, and Demeter, the goddess of grain who is the city’s most revered deity.
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