Sybaris, an Incuse Design

Hello all,

In my class; An Overview of Ancient Greek Coinage, at the ANA Summer Seminar this year, each person in the class was assigned an ancient coin. We were to do research and create a little presentation for our class. These presentations lasted around a minute or two, due to time.
Yesterday I had some time on my hands and I expanded my little presentation a little. Editing by my mother.

Note: I do not own the coin shown!

If I am missing any information, please share. Enjoy!

Sybaris, an Incuse Design
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The Greek colony Sybaris was founded in southern Italy by the Achaens and Troezens at around 720 B.C. The colony was established on fertile land and quickly became a prosperous city. Sybaris eventually became the most important colony in Italy during that time. The city was situated between two rivers, the Crathis and the Sybaris. The Sybarites soon had colonies of their own, Laus and Scidrus. In 510 B.C., Sybaris was completely destroyed by the Crotons. The Crotons leveled the prosperous city to the ground and enslaved the inhabitants.

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Sybaris and many colonies in southern Italy probably started minting their own coinage in the mid-6th century B.C. Many of these coins featured the unique mirrored design on the obverse and reverse known as incuse. Some researchers believe that the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who traveled to Italy during this time, may have helped innovate this concept of minting coins. This design was used by the Sybarites, the Crotons, the Metapontines, and by the Poseidons.

During the period 530-10 B.C., the Sybarites minted their incuse coins in the following denominations: stater/nomos, drachms, triobols and obols. All of the pieces for each denomination depict a bull standing left with its head looking back on the obverse. Only for the stater and drachms is the incused bull on the reverse. This bull design could "... be a symbol of fertility, or the river god Crathis." (1) The bull stands on a dotted exergue line. Underneath the line, staters and drachms can either have VM or V. The letters YM or VM can be found in the field above the bull.


From CNG:
Lucania, Sybaris.Circa 550-510 BC. AR Nomos (30mm, 7.90 g, 12h). Bull standing left, head right; VM in exergue / Incuse bull standing right, head left. SNG ANS 828-44; HN Italy 1729. VF, toned, a few old scratches and scrapes on the obverse.

Works Cited:​

http://wildwinds.com/coins/greece/lucania/sybaris/t.html
http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Lucania_map/Sybaris_map/Sybaris.htmlhttp://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/lucania/sybaris/i.html
http://www.italythisway.com/places/articles/sybaris-history.php
http://www.britannica.com/place/Sybaris

1. Davis, Norman. "Greek Coins & Cities"
2. Jenkins, G. K. "Coins In History Ancient Greek Coins"
3. Numismatic Museum, Athens. "Coins and Numismatics"
4. Sayles, Wayne G. "Ancient Coin Collecting II"
Notes from the ANA 2015 Summer Seminar An Overview of Ancient Greek Coinage.

Aidan

 

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Very interesting write-up. Thanks to you (and your mother) for sharing. BTW, that is a gorgeous coin you selected for your example.

 

You may wish to add this to your references, "A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum. Italy". You can download your own copy at Google Books in several formats or use it online.

https://books.google.com/books/about/A_catalogue_of_the_Greek_coins_in_the_Br.html?id=LcYUAAAAQAAJ

The British Museum catalogues are an invaluable reference for Greek coins. The first 28 volumes are now public domain and can all be found online, though it may take some effort to locate them all. Google Books (books.google.com), archive.org and hathitrust.org are good places to start.

 

Nice and succinct writeup, Aidan . I wonder how they made the reverse dies. Did they use an actual obverse-struck coin? Did they use a lost wax casting method?

@dltsrq, I was searching for a free digital copy of A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum: Lycaonia, Isauria, and Cilicia but haven't found one. I don't see it on Google Books. Do you have a link? [edited: Never mind, I found it on Scribd via Digital Library Numis]

 

I think I found my Lyacaonia at hathitrust.org. I have managed to find all of the first 28 volumes, not to mention BMC Roman, Byzantine, India, Oriental, English, etc. When I was a college student in the 1970s & 1980s, my university's library system was one of the largest in the world and had a remarkable numismatic section. Today I have a numismatic library of some 2,400 .pdf titles (11.5 GB) in a documents sub-folder on my laptop which puts that university library to shame. Virtually anything published before 1927, including many standard numismatic references, can be found at the sites noted above. Hathi Trust recently added many ANS publications, still under copyright but sanctioned by the Society. Academia.edu is another good source for recent work.

 

Thanks for the replies all.
@TIF I haven't read anything stating exactly how they made reverse dies.

 

@Aidan_() Nice write up and very interesting. I have just finished John Anthony "Collecting Greek Coins", and he wrote about Sybarus. He actually featured your coin also (p27, Coin 38). Great job! I am fascinated by the reverse incuse design that that mirror's the obverse. Agreed with @TIF about lost wax or struck... And, Pythagoras is a fascinating man... the patron of our Fraternity (Club) during my university days. You made a very interesting subject choice.

 

Thanks Alegandron. I've grown to appreciate this piece's history.

 

nice write up aidan! these coins are pretty darn interesting.
was your class for school or was this something you were taking on your own?

 

Thanks Chris. This was a class at the ANA Summer Seminar. Each participant in the class was assigned a coin.

 

Very good! You taught me something new today!
Gotta love the history behind these beauties.

 

You're quite welcome MM.
Oh, the particular piece shown from CNG sold $3000.

 

I have been eyeing one like that but only about fine in the stock of a dealer I know for about three years but we are still not in agreement on price. I have nothing from Sybaris but do have a couple of the more common cities. My favorite is the Metapontum obol where the incuse reverse is just one grain from the obverse head.


My two Croton staters are slightly later when the coins were a bit thicker but still incuse on the reverse. The first has a large cud out of the obverse die.


The second is better but the reverse is off center showing the different edge.


Notice that the reverses have no birds or letters. I see no reason to believe the dies were not just cut that way. It would be like cutting a normal coin design on the die face.

Croton is like Corinth in that the city name began with qoppa at this period.

 

Very nice examples Doug, thanks for sharing.

Noticed this on most of the incuse coins, if not all. I would think that the reverse design without birds and letters could be a standard they used then. Just my 2-cents worth.

 

Learned somthin' new today, went on HA looked at the Long Beach world coin auction and found a Croton piece with an incuse design of a flying eagle on the reverse.
http://coins.ha.com/itm/greek/ancie...3042-29012.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515
I guess they used different incuse designs for their coins.

 

When is your upcoming presentation?

 

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

 

What, you want me to do another one?

 

Should you want to, of course. I was more curious the response you received (or will receive) from your Presentation at the ANA Summer Seminar...

 

Ah, okay. The Seminar already happened (beginning of July), we, as a class, gave our presentations on the last day. The presentations were about a minute or so long due to time. I was the last one to give a minute presentation.