Catalog
Æ
| Issuer | Tauromenion |
|---|---|
| Year | 317 BC - 275 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | A crab is depicted in high relief at the centre of the field, shown from above in a naturalistic manner with the broad carapace prominently rendered and the legs splayed outward to either side. The motif is a well-known civic emblem associated with Sicilian coastal communities and appears frequently on coinage of the region. The reverse field is plain and unlettered, with no legend or additional devices. The flan is irregular with a rough, uneven edge consistent with the hammered production technique of this series. |
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| Additional information |
Tauromenion — modern Taormina — was refounded around 358 BC by Andromachus, father of the historian Timaeus, after Dionysius I had razed the earlier Sicel settlement at Naxos. The city's bronze coinage of this period reflects its status as a modest but independent polis on the northeastern Sicilian coast, operating outside the monetary dominance of Syracuse during a stretch of near-constant regional warfare. Small bronzes of this weight class functioned as the lowest denomination of everyday exchange — market transactions, port fees, minor payments.