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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jay GT4, post: 3115470, member: 88526&quot;]Picked this one up today at theTorex coin show.&nbsp; Decent coin for the type with a good provenance.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-147414" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-147414" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-147414</a></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791461[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Lucania, Metapontom stater</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>Raised barley corn</p><p><br /></p><p>Incuse barley corn</p><p><br /></p><p>Metapontom, 440-510 BC</p><p><br /></p><p>7.72g</p><p><br /></p><p>Tight flan series NOE 243-256; HN Italy 1485</p><p><br /></p><p>Ex-DM collection, Ex-HJB, Ex-Calgary coin</p><p><br /></p><p>An Achaean colony of great antiquity, Metapontion was destroyed and refounded early in the 6th century by colonists from Sybaris under the leadership of Leukippos. The city occupied an exceptionally fertile plain on the Gulf of Tarentum, which explains the use of the barley ear as its civic badge. Metapontion, along with Sybaris and Kroton produced the earliest coinage in Magna Graecia. The coins of these cities share three features: weight standard, broad and thin flans, and incuse reverses. These features were then adopted by neighboring mints at Kaulonia and elsewhere in southern Italy. While the reasoning behind the choice of these shared features is not clear, the common weight and style facilitated circulation between the cities of south Italy. The mixed contents of the earliest hoards from the region support this idea of free circulation of currency. It is interesting that these common features, indigenous to south Italy, also tended to keep the coins in south Italy. They are rarely found elsewhere in Italy, not even in Sicily. After approximately 510 B.C., the date of the destruction of Sybaris by Kroton, the fabric of the coins throughout south Italy became smaller and thicker, though still with incuse reverses. In the years between 480 and 430 B.C., sooner in Tarentum and later in Metapontion, the incuse issues were replaced by a two sided coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>Let&#039;s see your incuse coins[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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