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Drachm
| Issuer | Kyrene |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 480 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Silphium seed pod depicted with the point downwards, rendered in raised relief with a characteristically heart-shaped bilobate form, the two lobes clearly defined by a central vertical ridge. The device is set within a broad plain border encircled by a continuous ring of raised pellets, lending a decorative framing to the central type. The flan is irregular in outline, typical of early archaic hammered coinage from the Cyrenaican region. No legend or inscription appears in the field. |
|---|---|
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| Mint | Kyrene (Cyrene) |
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| Additional information |
Kyrene's economy in this period was built almost entirely on the export of silphium, a plant so valuable to the ancient Mediterranean world that the city held what amounted to a monopoly on its supply. The plant grew only in a narrow coastal strip of Libya and resisted every attempt at cultivation elsewhere. Rome's treasury would later stock it by the pound alongside gold.
The SNG Copenhagen and BMC references place this piece among the earliest coinage from the mint, predating the city's absorption into the Ptolemaic sphere by nearly two centuries.