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!
Drachm
| Issuer | Korkyra (Epeiros) |
|---|---|
| Year | 585 BC - 500 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Forepart of a cow advancing to left, rendered in archaic relief with robust, stylized musculature. The animal's head is lowered in a grazing posture, with the legs partially visible beneath the body. The design occupies the broad, irregularly shaped flan characteristic of early Korkyraean coinage, with no legend or inscription present in the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Within a deeply recessed incuse square, a floral-stellate pattern composed of eight alternating pointed petals and elongated leaves radiating from a small central square pellet, creating a bold eight-pointed star or rosette motif. The petals are rendered in high relief against the sunken field of the incuse, displaying crisp and confident die-cutting typical of early archaic Greek coinage. No legend or inscription is present. The incuse square itself has sharply defined borders. |
| 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 |
Korkyra — modern Corfu — was among the earliest Greek colonies to strike its own silver coinage, having broken from its Corinthian founders with enough economic independence to do so by the late seventh century. The colony's persistent friction with Corinth, which culminated in the naval battle of 664 BC traditionally cited as the first recorded sea battle in Greek history, gave Korkyra strong incentive to assert monetary autonomy early.
HGC 6, 40 places this type among the archaic series produced before Korkyra's coinage fully standardized — a period when local die-cutters were still working out conventions borrowed imperfectly from the Corinthian model.