I am talking here about Metapontion! The city is located in the region of Lucania in Magna Graecia and is well know as all of it's coins contain something related to grain (mostly an ear of grain). What makes the early coinage (540-440 BC) extra special is the incuse fabric used on the reverse of the coins. The fabric of the incuse coins were used in common by almost all of the Achaean cities in Magna Graecia before the fall of Sybaris, and it was thought that there must have been a monetary confederation. Hereby the coin: Lucania, Metapontion. AR Nomos. Circa 470-440 BC. Obverse: Ear of barley with five grains; head of ram to left, retrograde MET up right field. Reverse: Incuse ear of barley with six grains. Reference: HN Italy 1485 8.17g; 19mm The minting process of the incuse fabric is very expensive and time consuming. To cut the reverse die directly, the die-cutter would have had to remove the entire surface of the die, with the exception of the ear itself and the rim, and he would have had to cut to a depth equal to the relief of the highest point of the ear. In other words, about three-quarters of the surface to a uniform depth of nearly 4 mm would have to be removed and all of the delicate portions of the relief would have to be left untouched, including the rim as well as the awns. Just realize what kind of artists were making these kind of dies! The first coins of this type (540-510 BC) were made on wide and thin flans, they are very impressive. However, the ancient coin user apparently did not find these impressive and disliked them. Eventhough they were a Nomos (Didrachm) and they all weighted around 8.1g, just as similar coins from other regions, they felt 'light' in the hand due to the large diameter and thin flan. Therefore, over time the coins started to get thicker and chunkier. My above coin is the last of the series (470-440 BC), and only has a diameter of 19mm! Compare that with the ~29mm of the first series (540-510 BC). After 440 BC the incuse fabric ceased to exist. It is easy to guess the reason, the effort of time and money to make these coins at great volume was not worth it. Please post your coins of Metapontion!
I really like the incuse series and have shown all of mine here more than once. For this thread, I'll only point out that the large nomos was joined by a full set of fractions including these two from Metapontion. The first is 'normal' 1/12 nomos at 0.4g with the reverse design the same as the obverse. When CNG sold a dupe of this in sale 392, Lot: 24, they called it 'dumpy' and said the thing obverse right was the head of a mule. I have no idea where they got that. Perhaps there are better specimens from the die that look more mulish. Anyone have Noe Addenda 293.5? My favorite (same size) replaced the whole grain reverse with a single incuse kernel.
A real beauty big coingrats Pavlos! LOVE the style of the ridiculously complex to make incuse coins of "the greater Greece" (see avatar ) Here's my Metapontion
Very nice addition Pavlos! With coins like your Nomos, Metapontion would need small AE obols like this for change. Lucania, Metapontion. c. 300-250 BC. Ae13 Obv: Radiate head of Helios facing. Rev: Three barley-grains radiating from center, M E and race torch within segments.
Ann Johnston revised Noe's classification of flans ("spread and thick flan") into three: "spread" (28-30mm) "medium" (24-25mm) "dumpy" (16-20mm) While I also have a hard time seeing a "mule’s head" in your coin - here is another Metapontum obol that is also labelled "mule’s head" with similar (maybe even same die?) obverse to yours: and a "mule’s head" nicely executed on a Stater (231 from Noe) Ref: Coinage of Metapontum by Ann Johnston, 1990 Coinage of Metapontum, Part 1 by Sydney Noe, 1927 Portraits of Greek Coinage - Metapontum, Robin Eaglen, Spink ACSearch
Pavlos, Congratulations on scoring this handsome archaic Greek coin . I've always admired the simplicity & straightforward message on early Greek coinage. I have nothing in my collection that early but I'll post again a Celtic gold stater that appears to be inspired by the coinage of Metapontum, that I scored early this year. CELTIC, Trinovantes & Catuvellauni, Cunobelin, circa AD 10-43, AV Stater: 18 mm, 5.42 gm, 12 h, Camulodunum Mint. Obverse: Ear of barley, CA MV. Reverse: Galloping horse with palm branch above, war shield below, 3 pellets in field, in exergue CVNO.
Very nice! These distinctive incuse types of Magna Graecia are really quite special. A spread flan variety is on my long term want list. LUCANIA, Metapontion AR Didrachm. 7.72g, 20.5mm. LUCANIA, Metapontion, circa 340-330 BC. HN Italy 1576; Johnston Class B, 3.16; Pozzi (Boutin) 499 (this coin). O: ΛEYKIΠΠOΣ, Bearded head of Leukippos to right, wearing Corinthian helmet; behind, dog seated to left; below neck, Σ. R: META, Barley ear with leaf to right; above leaf, dove alighting right; below leaf, AMI. Ex Prof. Samuel-Jean Pozzi Collection (Boutin), 499
Lovely coin, these Hellenistic portraits can be particularly pleasing to see, much more than just the 'grain' Nice coins Doug, the fractions are indeed quite abundantly struck as well next to the Nomos, and are nice to have. I see @Sulla80 already answered your questions a bit more. Thank you @Ryro! Your avatar coin is great as well, and I think that incuse is even harder to make than this grain ear! Nice coin, the bronze coins can be very attractive as well and I like the facing head of Helios! Thank you @Al Kowsky! That stater is great and it could indeed have been influenced by the coinage of Metapontion. The color is not that bright, is it the picture? If not, could it perhaps have a lower purity, done deliberately, or these Celts didn't know how to make pure gold? My knowledge is meager on these Celtic coins. Thank you @zumbly, your coin is attractive and a nice provenance as well.
Pavlos, No doubt there is at least 10-15% silver in this coin, giving it a whiter appearance than you'd expect to see on a pure gold coin . This is typical for Celtic gold coins.
Are you saying that there exist today as many of these fractions as the larger coins? That would mean that the standard references and later sellers chose to illustrate every nomos they saw but hardly 1% of the fractions. In the case of the 'donkey head' coin, I have seen at least three from that die and no more than a couple coins from other dies while there seem to be a great number of dies for the nomos size. Perhaps at one time the fractions were abundant but where are those coins today? Usually having coins sharing fewer dies indicates fewer were made rather than an abundant issue. For the record, there is also the 1/3 nomos size. They seem less frequently illustrated that the larger ones as well. Mine has a double struck reverse that makes it look 'odd'.
Here's a much "newer" coin for this thread - if the incuse coins are the "special grain" - this is the "common grain" Lucania, Metapontion, c. 300-250 BC, AE Obv: Head of Dionysos left, wearing ivy-wreath Rev: META, barley-ear with leaf to right at right, above, cross-torch Ref: Johnston, "The Bronze Coinage of Metapontum," in Kraay-Mørkholm Essays, p. 128, 47
