Catalog
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| Issuer | Kuma |
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| Year | 490 BC - 470 BC |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | A mussel shell rendered in high relief occupies the central field, depicted frontally with radiating ribs spreading outward from a central hinge point in the early archaic Greek coinage style. The shell's naturalistic form is boldly executed, its surface exhibiting characteristic hammered texture consistent with fifth-century BC Campanian coinage. The flan is irregular in outline, typical of hand-struck issues of this period. |
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| Mintage | ND (490 BC - 470 BC) |
| Additional information |
Kuma — the Greek colony of Cumae on the Campanian coast — was among the earliest Greek settlements in Italy and the conduit through which the Greek alphabet passed to the Etruscans and eventually the Romans. This drachm falls squarely within the period of Cumae's greatest political tension, immediately following the city's pivotal naval victory over the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae in 474 BC, a engagement in which Syracuse sent warships in direct support.
GCV 220 is scarce in any grade; Campanian Greek silver from this early period suffers high attrition rates in the auction record.