I've been jealous of the waves on the Tarentum staters of some of our members here for awhile now, and even though I have several of these dolphin riders, up until now I didn't have an example featuring waves. In particular, I admired the stylish curve of the waves on @Collect89's stater and @dougsmit's fourree, and readily admit that the waves on my new one aren't anywhere as nice. On the other hand, a die clash on the obverse produced a couple of incuse waves below the hindquarters of the horse, and as a result, the wave count on my coin is technically higher than either of theirs. So there . CALABRIA, Tarentum AR Stater. 7.64g, 21.7mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 380-340 BC. Vlasto 445 (same obv die). O: Nude helmeted warrior on horseback to left, holding reins in right hand, and shield and spear in left; Δ below horse. R: Taras seated astride dolphin to left, holding trident over shoulder; K and waves below, TAPAΣ to right. Notes: As noted in Vlasto, "the obv. die must have struck the rev. die without blank and thus got damaged."
Please feel free to share your coins of Tarentum, BTW. Here are the other dolphin riders in my small pod, from most recently acquired to earliest...
Congrats on a great catch zumbly, it compliments your set of silver Tarentum wonderfully great set of coins.
Thanks! That's exactly what drew me to this coin. That owl is like, "You're kidding, right... I'm supposed to ride on the back of a what?"
Seven, with another five to go to make my Twelve Dolphin-Riders set . Yes, but when you finally get one, we know it will be awesome.
I'm sure when @TIF gets one, it will not only be awesome, but will also come with an amusing TIF-GIF animation!
One for each of the Suetonius Caesars. That's just good sense I'm not so sure about that. Awesome examples are expeeeeensive and like certain other series (COL NEMs come to mind), it's a matter of picking which problems you can live with. There are a couple of dies that i'm looking out for. The right dies at the right time at the right price... tall order. That I will certainly do
It is impossible to only want a single Tarentum nomos but so far, I've been outbid on the others I've chased. Here's my example, which I was lucky to snag from an auction where the vibrant toning wasn't as visible:
Wow, that obverse is simply exceptional! The iridescent tone is lovely, it's perfectly centered and complete, and even the waves are nicely styled. Of course, there are only four of them... .
@zumbly Your Tarentum collection is fantastic! well done. The waves on your OP are incredible, and the obv incuse is very cool! Congrats! I regret I do not have one. I have seriously thought about bidding hard (because of several of your prior postings), but have not gotten serious yet. I will... My ONLY Tarentum! Calabria Tarentum AR Drachm 18mm 3.1g 3rd C BCE Athena Corinthian helmet Scylla OWL olive TAP ZOP HN Italy 975 Vlasto 1052
That is a great collection @zumbly you have some beautiful coins from Tarentum. I would love to add one to my collection at some point.
A collection by wave count would be a great excuse to buy more! I've toyed with collecting Olynthus tetradrachms by string count but ultimately it's financially challenging to go deep into any particular type when my collecting focus is so broad.