Catalog
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| Issuer | Tarentum |
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| Year | 470 BC - 465 BC |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The mythological founder Phalanthos depicted nude, riding a dolphin to the left with both arms outstretched in a gesture of triumph or supplication; a scallop shell appears in the lower field beneath the dolphin, serving as a secondary device. The composition is rendered in the early Classical style characteristic of Tarentine coinage of this period, with fluid naturalistic movement. |
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| Reverse description | Youthful head of Apollo facing left, his short hair neatly dressed and bound with a taenia; the portrait is rendered in a refined early Classical style with careful attention to facial modelling. The entire design is contained within a linear circle forming the border of the field. |
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| Additional information |
Tarentum's nomoi from this period fall within the city's early classical coinage, struck roughly two generations after the colony's refounding under Spartan leadership following the First Messenian War. The city's unusual mint output — running almost uninterrupted from the late sixth century through the third — gives this specific emission its value as a fixed chronological marker within the Vlasto sequence, where issues 140–154 bracket a transitional phase in die-cutting style between the archaic and early classical workshops.