Nomos

Metapontion's grain economy was no accident — the city had cultivated some of the most productive agricultural land in Magna Graecia since its foundation in the late seventh century, and that prosperity is precisely why the barley ear became the defining emblem of its coinage for over two centuries. By the late fourth century, when this nomos was struck, the city was navigating increasing pressure from the Oscan-speaking Lucanian tribes pushing down from the interior highlands, a tension that would eventually strangle Metapontion's independence entirely.

The HN Italy 1592 classification places this piece within a well-documented but not abundant series.