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Drachm
| Issuer | Himera |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 482 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A hen standing to right, depicted in a calm,静止 pose with folded wings and compact body, rendered in relief within a linear square border which is itself set within a shallow incuse square, a hallmark of early Sicilian coinage technique. The composition is unlettered, the double framing device — inner linear square and outer incuse square — serving both as a decorative border and a functional feature of the hammered incuse technique. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Himera occupied a strategically awkward position on Sicily's northern coast — the only major Greek settlement on that shore, surrounded by Phoenician and indigenous Sikan territories. These drachms were struck during the city's final decades of genuine independence, before the catastrophic Carthaginian assault of 480 BC, in which Hamilcar's forces were routed at the Battle of Himera by the combined armies of Gelon of Syracuse and Theron of Akragas. The defeat was so complete that Hamilcar reportedly threw himself into the sacrificial fire rather than face capture.
The city would survive that battle but never fully recover its autonomy. It was razed entirely in 409 BC by a Carthaginian punitive expedition — making any coinage from this pre-480 window a product of the city's only period of unencumbered civic minting.