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Nomos
| Issuer | Metapontion |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 340 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Head of Demeter facing right, rendered in fine Classical style with elaborately dressed hair adorned with a wreath of grain ears and bound with a sphendone; the flowing locks are arranged in elegant waves and curls falling behind the neck. The portraiture exhibits the refined modeling characteristic of South Italian Greek die-engravers of the early fourth century BC, with delicate facial features and a serene expression. The field is plain and unlettered. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Metapontion's agricultural wealth — built on the grain surplus of the Tarentine Gulf's interior plains — funded one of the most prolific silver coinage programs in Magna Graecia through the fourth century. The city had been a Achaean foundation, and its coinage maintained unusually consistent fabric and weight standards across generations, even as neighboring mints fluctuated under Syracusan pressure and Lucanian encroachment. By the mid-fourth century, Lucanian raids were already beginning to strangle Metapontion's hinterland, and the mint output that had once seemed inexhaustible was entering its terminal contraction.