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!
Diobol
| Issuer | Arpi (Apulia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 325 BC - 275 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 | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, rendered in fine relief with carefully engraved facial features. The goddess wears an Attic helmet adorned with a prominent transverse crest and a hippocamp decorating the bowl. Long locks of hair flow down behind the neck in flowing parallel strands, a characteristic stylistic feature of South Italian coinage of this period. The cheek-guards of the helmet frame a delicate profile with almond-shaped eye and finely modelled lips. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Herakles kneeling to right in a dynamic composition, his muscular nude body rendered with vigorous three-quarter perspective. The hero grasps the Nemean lion firmly about the neck with both hands, strangling the beast in his first Labour. The Greek ethnic legend APΠCE (for Arpanoi or Arpi) is inscribed in the upper field, and a secondary control mark in the form of the letter delta (Δ) appears in the lower field below the figures. |
| 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 |
Arpi was among the most powerful Daunian cities of northern Apulia, and its silver coinage reflects a community operating within Greek monetary conventions while maintaining a distinct Italic identity. The city's political fate shifted dramatically after it defected to Hannibal following Cannae in 216 BC — one of the most consequential defections of the Second Punic War — though by that point this diobol series had long since ceased production. The fractional silver coinage of Arpi is scarce in any condition, with relatively few specimens documented across the major reference collections.