Fellow CT'ers, It's been a long time in the making, but a new reference work focusing exclusively on the diobols of Tarentum is finally in print and will be available shortly. It has 238 pages in color presenting and categorizing ~2,000 specimens from museums, related reference works and major auctions. See https://www.edizionidandrea.com/ I'm proud to have been part of this effort, undertaking the translation from Italian into English so that more numismatists from around the world will be able to learn from and enjoy this work. Next up is a comprehensive, three-volume study of the entire coinage of Tarentum. I'm sure many of you will enjoy that as well. Post anything Tarentum-related, recent numismatic reference works you enjoy or whatever else you feel is relevant!
Wonderful, that sounds exciting! I think I have exactly two coins of Tarentum, including one Diobol. Really lovely coins, I can see why you would want to devote a lot of time to them. (I'm looking forward to seeing what I can learn about my type!) Herakles and the lion don't look so great on my reverse, but I loved the obverse style of this one: I figure the deep toning may come from some old collections, though I may never find which. I do know it was previously from the Elvira Clain-Stefanelli Collection who collected for many decades with her husband Vladimir (both numismatic curators at the Smithsonian, in Washington). Before them, the trail is long cold! My stater-nomos-didrachm would probably be the more exciting coin for most people, but I love them about equally:
Pardon my ignorance, but exactly which coins of Tarentum are the diobols? Does this exclude the dolphin-rider coins, which I've seen referred to as didrachms and by the term "nomos," but not as diobols so far as I can recall?
Yes, the diobols are the smaller fractions, usually with the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and Hercules fighting the Nemean lion on the reverse. They are typically 12-13 mm in diameter so smaller than a dime. @Curtis' first coin is a nice example of a diobol. The larger nomoi / didrachms / staters with horsemen / Phalanthos on dolphin are not part of this series, but will be covered in the three-volume set on the coinage of Tarentum which will be coming out near the end of this year (if all goes well).
It's funny but I often feel exactly that way about numismatic literature. I remember an interview in which David Sear shocked the interviewer by saying he never had any interest in collecting coins (though he sold them, at least at his firm w/ R. Freeman in L.A.), but that he loved numismatic literature all the same. The longer I collect, the more I see the coins and their literature as two parts of one phenomenon, each giving meaning to the other. I wonder if I might enjoy it even more if I collected only the books and journals and catalogs and fixed price lists!
I know what you mean. The coin is the flash and sense of history. The book is understanding and context. The sum is more than the parts.
It should be available shortly. I think you can order it already from some of the European numismatic sites. Try direct from the author at Edizioni D'Andrea: https://www.edizionidandrea.com/ I'm trying to see whether some of the North American numismatic literature dealers (not sure who they are yet) would be interested in buying a bulk lot of copies and distributing them within North America, so the net shipping cost to US and Canadian addresses isn't too high. I think that has been a major issue for many of us within North America when purchasing European numismatic reference works, and I know the author and I were discussing how to address this. Hopefully we can figure out a solution, as the three-volume set of Tarentum coinage is even heavier, but it would certainly be great to be able to get it into the hands of those in North America who would really appreciate it (hopefully second half of this year)... Will let you all know when I receive my copy of the Diobols reference book... it should be within the next few weeks (fingers crossed)...
