New ancient Greek coin bought on a whim (with perhaps some buyer's remorse)

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Congratulations for the coin. The dolphin rider is very popular (I don't have an example and my attempts to grab one failed).
I find the coin pleasant and I would like a similar example in my album.
Buyer remorse - well, now all of us felt that once or twice. Mainly depends on the final price. But again, this is a good coin and withe the price you paid you probably would have gotten 2-3 other coins but not as nice.

Here is my only Tarentum coin (I admit I had no remorse - price was 12 EUR + 17% fees)




Calabria. Tarentum circa 380-325 BC.
Diobol AR
10 mm, 0,90 g
CALABRIA, Tarentum. Circa 380-325 BC. AR Diobol Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with hippocamp/ Herakles crouching right, holding club and strangling the Nemean Lion to right. Vlasto 1303–5; HN Italy 911.

 

No need for buyer's remorse. It's a great coin! And from a great city in Magna Graecia. (At least, I think so. Without it, Pyrrhos wouldn't have ended up in Italy and given us the Pyrrhic victory). And I love the dolphin in Taras' hand on yours...


I sometimes wonder why they prepared their flans in a slightly octagonal shape.
Does anyone know?

 

Beautifull nomos, congrats Aussie
same coin as Ignoramus example:

 

TARAS, CALABRIA
AR Diobol
OBVERSE: Head of Athena in crested helmet left decorated with Skylla
REVERSE: Herakles kneeling right, strangling lion
Struck at Taras 380-334 BC
1.2g, 11mm
Vlasto 1316

 

Riding on a dolphin and holding a dolphin. How cool is that?

6 dolphin riders made it into my collection. None of them in high grade, unfortunately. This is my oldest 365-355BC. There's a herm on the obverse, facing the horse. And phalantos holding an oinochoe on the reverse.

 

Congrats on your new pickup, @AussieCollector.

Riding on a dolphin is such a very cool design idea. Here is my example.

 

I think it's a great acquisition, @AussieCollector. A year from now, or even less, you'll have forgotten the cost, and will just appreciate having such a beautiful coin.

Here are my two examples of dolphin-rider coins from Tarentum:

Tarentum, Calabria. AR Nomos (didrachm), ca. 302-280 BCE. Magistrates Sa.., Arethon and Cas-. Obv. Youth on horseback right, crowning horse with wreath; magistrates' names: ΣA to left and AΡE/ΘΩN in two lines below/ Rev. TAΡAΣ, Phalanthos astride dolphin left, holding tripod, CAΣ below. Vlasto 666 [Ravel, O.E., Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Tarentine Coins formed by M.P. Vlasto (London, 1947, reprinted)]; HN Italy 957 [Rutter, N.K., ed., Historia Numorum Italy (London, 2001)]; SNG ANS 1046 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, USA, The Collection of the American Numismatic Society, Part 1: Etruria - Calabria (New York 1969)]. 23 mm., 7.86 g.



Tarentum, Calabria. AR Nomos, ca. 272-240 BCE. Magistrates Sy… and Lykinos. Obv. Nude youth on horse advancing to left, crowning horse with wreath held in right hand, holding reins in left hand; to right, ΣΥ; below horse, ΛΥΚΙ/ΝΟΣ in two lines / Rev. Phalanthos [not “Taras”; see https://coinsweekly.com/and-this-is-where-aristotle-was-wrong/] astride dolphin to left, his back half-turned to viewer, brandishing trident held in right hand, chlamys draped over left arm; ΤΑ-ΡΑΣ beneath dolphin; in right field, owl standing to left, head facing.. Vlasto 836-841 [all same type] at p. 95 & Pl. XXVII [Ravel, O.E., Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Tarentine Coins formed by M.P. Vlasto (London, 1947, reprinted 1977)]; HN Italy 1025 [Rutter, N.K., ed., Historia Numorum Italy (London, 2001)]. 19.5 mm., 6.47 g, 12 h. (“Reduced standard” compared to larger size of earlier coins, beginning after arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy ca. 280 BCE.) Purchased at Nomos Obolos Auction 22, 6 March 2022, Lot 39.

 

Here's an Ae that I acquired in one of the recent Artemide Aste auctions that I haven't seen for sale for a while. It's not in great condition but has the city ethnic on the side where Hercules is sitting on the rocks. Athena is on the obverse, which I always find fascinating as Taras was said to be founded by emigrants from Sparta, not Athens. Still, Athena and her owl continue to be an enduring theme on many coins of Taras, most notably the drachm and diobols.

All of the copper/bronze coinage was minted from 281 - 209 BC, overlapping the period of the First Punic War. In the fourth century, Taras was somewhat exceptional within Magna Grecia that it issued a tremendous variety of fractional denominations solely in silver when other city-states in Magna Grecia and Sicily had already replaced their smaller silver fractions with bronze coinage.



I have a number of other coins from Taras (it is one of my collecting areas) but have not taken photos of any of those coins recently. I also haven't acquired many coins of Taras recently due to the ongoing sky-high prices. When building out my collection, I've opted for acquiring examples of the different denominations rather than building out a collection of didrachms, of which there appear to be a million different varieties. These didrachms are some of the most beautiful but also plentiful examples of Greek and Magna Grecian coinage available.

Note also that a new book on Tarentine diobols was recently released (I assisted in the translation of the book from Italian to English). It's a hardcover book with 235 pages. It has something like 2000 colour illustrations of diobols from various museums, private collections and auctions, catalogued into 283 different types. You can buy the book (it's EUR 70 but well worth it!) from Edizione d'Andrea's website: https://www.edizionidandrea.com/product-page/the-diobols-of-tarentum.



Following this, there will be an extensive 3-volume hardcover series devoted to all the coins of Tarentum. Volume 1 will hopefully be completed and available around July/September.

 

Awesome coin .. would love to see a "Bing's Coins" thread where you would just add a coin a week and we would show our similar examples for 7 days and start again. You have so many great coins to share.

 

I have over 800 coins. Not sure how someone with a large collection could show them all.

 

Congrats, @AussieCollector! I think any collection of Greek coins benefits from at least one of these wonderful dolphin-riders. Two of my favorites...

CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Stater. 7.50g, 20.2mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 325-281 BC. Fischer-Bossert 870c (this coin); Vlasto 607; SNG Copenhagen 849; SNG France 1800 (same obverse die). O: Nude rider on horse galloping to right, stabbing with spear held in his right hand and holding two other spears and shield with his left; below, ΣΑ. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthos riding dolphin to left, holding kantharos in his right hand and trident in his left; below, little dolphin leaping left; K in left field.

CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Stater. 7.75g, 22.3mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 332-281 BC. Fischer-Bossert Group 80, 1131 (V417/R873); Vlasto 587; HN Italy 934. O: Warrior, holding shield and two spears, preparing to cast a third, on horseback right; ΣA below. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthos, holding distaff, riding dolphin left; pellet to left; below, prow left.
Ex Thomas Bentley Cederlind Collection; Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 84 (20 May 2015), lot 1358

 

Hi, this diobol isn’t from Tarentum but from Herakleia (Lucania)

Best regards

 

Hi Marco. Do you know the reference for the coin? Would it be similar to https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=241465
I know the design is not unique for Tarentum.
EDIT - after checking the coin again, I see the HE on the reverse, clearer in hand with the magnifying glass. Coin should be similar to https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=203148
Many thanks.