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!
Dichalkon
| Issuer | Katane |
|---|---|
| Year | 216 BC - 206 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Litra |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A dolphin leaps to the right, its arched body rendered in fine naturalistic detail with a curled tail and open mouth, occupying the central field. The Greek numeral XII, serving as a mark of value, appears in the upper field above the dolphin. The ethnic legend ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ is inscribed along the lower portion of the reverse in Greek characters, identifying the issuing city of Katane in Sicily. The composition is characteristic of late Sicilian Hellenistic civic bronze coinage. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | XII ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Katane's bronze coinage of this period was struck under Syracusan dominance following the city's submission after the First Punic War, a subordinate status that shaped what denominations were locally produced and for what purposes. The dichalkon circulated in a Sicily increasingly caught between Roman expansion and the final collapse of the Syracusan kingdom under Hieronymus in 215 BC — a political rupture that briefly pushed Syracuse into the Carthaginian camp and brought Roman siege to the entire region.