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Didrachm
| Issuer | Barke |
|---|---|
| Year | 480 BC |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 8.32 g |
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| Obverse description | Ram's head facing right with a beaded truncation at the neck, rendered in archaic Greek style with fine engraving detail. Below the truncation, a silphium fruit or seed pod is depicted in the field. The entire design is surrounded by a border of dots along the periphery. |
|---|---|
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| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (-480) |
| Additional information |
Barke, a Greek colonial city in Cyrenaica (modern Libya), was founded around 560 BC by settlers from Cyrene following a dynastic dispute. By 480 BC the city had already survived Persian conquest — Darius I's forces took Barke around 512 BC after a siege, and a portion of its population was deported to Bactria according to Herodotus. That the mint resumed production of quality silver coinage within a generation of that upheaval says something about the city's recovery, even as Cyrene increasingly overshadowed it politically.