Kroton, the Achaean Greek colony on the toe of Italy, was among the earliest western mints to adopt coinage, and its issues from this period reflect direct influence from the incuse technique pioneered — or at least systematized — across Magna Graecia around 550 BC. The incuse style, in which the reverse carries a sunken mirror image of the obverse type, is almost exclusively a southern Italian phenomenon; no mainland Greek mint used it with any consistency.
Kroton's late sixth-century output coincides with the city's period of maximum political and athletic prestige, before its catastrophic destruction of Sybaris in 510 BC reshuffled regional power.
Kroton, the Achaean Greek colony on the toe of Italy, was among the earliest western mints to adopt coinage, and its issues from this period reflect direct influence from the incuse technique pioneered — or at least systematized — across Magna Graecia around 550 BC. The incuse style, in which the reverse carries a sunken mirror image of the obverse type, is almost exclusively a southern Italian phenomenon; no mainland Greek mint used it with any consistency.
Kroton's late sixth-century output coincides with the city's period of maximum political and athletic prestige, before its catastrophic destruction of Sybaris in 510 BC reshuffled regional power.