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Hemiobol Shell, crescents
| Issuer | Tarentum |
|---|---|
| Year | 380 BC - 325 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | A scallop shell depicted in full face view, its ribbed valves radiating outward from a central hinge point, rendered in low relief on the irregularly flan. The naturalistic rendering of the shell is characteristic of the fine engraving tradition of Tarentum, with individual ribs clearly delineated across the surface of the field. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (380 BC - 325 BC) |
| Additional information |
Tarentum's fractional silver circulated in a colony perpetually caught between Italic tribes pressing from the interior and the ambitions of Syracuse to the west. Founded by Spartan exiles — the Partheniai, born of unions deemed illegitimate during the Peloponnesian War — the city retained an unusually fierce civic identity that extended even to its smallest denominations. Fractions like this hemiobol facilitated the kind of daily market exchange that the larger nomos could not.
Vlasto 1789–1791 documents minor die variation across the type, typical of small-module silver where individual punches wore quickly.