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Æ
| Issuer | Graxa (Calabria) |
|---|---|
| Year | 250 BC - 225 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A cockle shell depicted in high relief, shown frontally with radiating ribs fanning outward from the base, filling the majority of the coin's flan. The shell's naturalistic form is rendered with careful attention to its ribbed surface texture, characteristic of the marine iconography favored by Calabrian coastal minting authorities. No legend or subsidiary devices accompany the main type. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | An eagle standing to the right, perched upon a thunderbolt, depicted in a bold and schematic style typical of South Italian bronze coinage of the mid-third century BC. In the field, an occasional star or crescent appears as a subsidiary device. The ethnic legend ΓΡΑ is inscribed in Greek characters, identifying the issuing community of Graxa. |
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| Additional information |
Graxa was a minor Messapian settlement in Calabria whose civic coinage is among the least documented of any Italian Bronze Age community — the site itself has never been conclusively identified in the archaeological record, and its exact political status during the period of issue remains disputed. These bronzes appear to have been struck during a window of relative autonomy before Roman consolidation of the region following the Pyrrhic War effectively ended independent minting by smaller Apulian and Messapian communities.