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Chalkon
| Issuer | Metapontion |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 250 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Apollo facing left, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with long wavy hair falling behind the neck and a laurel wreath crown clearly delineated across the brow. The facial features are modeled with delicate relief, exhibiting the idealized physiognomy characteristic of late South Italian Greek coinage. The field is plain, with no legend or additional devices. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Metapontion's bronze coinage of this period reflects a city in managed decline. The great wheat-exporting economy that had made the city one of the wealthiest in Magna Graecia was contracting, and the shift toward small bronze issues rather than the prestigious silver staters the mint had long produced signals a local economy increasingly reliant on low-denomination exchange. Pythagoras had lived and taught here three centuries earlier; by the time these bronzes circulated, the city was navigating the violent pressure of Oscan migration and the encroaching ambitions of Pyrrhus of Epirus.