Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Æ
| Issuer | Mesma (Bruttium) |
|---|---|
| Year | 340 BC - 330 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Laureate head of Apollo facing right, rendered in the late Classical Greek style with finely articulated curling hair bound by a laurel wreath. The youthful, idealized features display characteristic smooth modelling of the cheek and neck. The partial legend ΜΕΣΜΑΙΩΝ is inscribed in Greek characters in the right field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Facing bust of Persephone, her head turned slightly to the right, her hair adorned with ears of grain, a common attribute associating the goddess with fertility and the chthonic sphere. An oinochoe or hydria vessel appears to the left in the field. The composition reflects the Sicilian-influenced artistic tradition prevalent in Bruttian bronze coinage of the mid-fourth century BC. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Mesma was a Locrian colony on the Tyrrhenian coast of Bruttium, founded in the late fifth century BC, and its autonomous bronze coinage was produced during a period of intensifying pressure from the Brettian league — the indigenous Italic confederation that was steadily absorbing Greek settlements throughout the region. By the early third century, Mesma had effectively disappeared as an independent polis, absorbed into the Brettian sphere. That political fragility makes its coinage historically brief, and the weight of references this type accumulates across major collections reflects scholarly interest disproportionate to its issuing city's size.