Classical Numismatic Group, LLC - Triton XXVIII – Sessions 1-4 . 404 Numistats ref: 672894
No match
Greek
Category
KYRENAICA, Kyrene. Circa 490-475 BC. AR Drachm (12.5mm, 3.37 g). Asiatic standard. Two silphion fruits set base-to-base; pellet between, leaves at sides between / Facing head of lion within incuse square. Buttrey, Coins, Period I, Group 2, 87; SNG Copenhagen 1172; BMC 38. Find patina, deposits. Good VF. Well struck on a broad flan.
Kyrene was the capital city of Kyrenaika on the North African coast immediately west of Egypt. Dorian Greek colonists founded Kyrene in 631 BC. The region played host to a wild-growing plant called silphion (or silphium), with a thick, striated and hollow stalk, broad horizontal branches, and yellow flowers that grew in bunches. The Greeks ascribed near magical properties to both the plant itself and its sap, called laserpicium by the Romans. Silphion had countless uses: a salve for burns, a treatment for hemorrhoids, cure for tetanus, and a seasoning for food, and was also described as having various properties associated with love and sex. From its earliest coinage, circa 525 BC, Kyrene featured the silphion plant and its heart-shaped fruit on its coin designs. Ancient sources state that the Kyreneans found silphion impossible to cultivate and could only gather it from the fields where it grew wild. In the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, over-harvesting and grazing by domesticated animals allegedly drove it to extinction. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphion was given to the Emperor Nero “as a curiosity.” A close relative of silphion likely exists today in the giant fennel plant, ferula communis, which still grows in North Africa and elsewhere. Description
Kyrene was the capital city of Kyrenaika on the North African coast immediately west of Egypt. Dorian Greek colonists founded Kyrene in 631 BC. The region played host to a wild-growing plant called silphion (or silphium), with a thick, striated and hollow stalk, broad horizontal branches, and yellow flowers that grew in bunches. The Greeks ascribed near magical properties to both the plant itself and its sap, called laserpicium by the Romans. Silphion had countless uses: a salve for burns, a treatment for hemorrhoids, cure for tetanus, and a seasoning for food, and was also described as having various properties associated with love and sex. From its earliest coinage, circa 525 BC, Kyrene featured the silphion plant and its heart-shaped fruit on its coin designs. Ancient sources state that the Kyreneans found silphion impossible to cultivate and could only gather it from the fields where it grew wild. In the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, over-harvesting and grazing by domesticated animals allegedly drove it to extinction. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphion was given to the Emperor Nero “as a curiosity.” A close relative of silphion likely exists today in the giant fennel plant, ferula communis, which still grows in North Africa and elsewhere. Description
Good VF
Grade
575.25 EUR
Starting
958.75 EUR
Estimate
EUR
Realized