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Onkia
| Issuer | Selinos |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 440 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Onkia (1⁄12) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Kantharos depicted facing, with two curved handles rising from the body of the vessel; a single pellet appears in the upper field above the kantharos, serving as a mark of value indicating one onkia. The design is rendered in low relief, typical of the cast bronze coinage of Sicilian mints in the mid-fifth century BC. The flan is irregular and lenticular in form, consistent with the casting technique employed at Selinos. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Selinos — the westernmost Greek polis on Sicily's southern coast — was already in slow decline by the mid-fifth century, squeezed between Carthaginian territory to the west and persistent pressure from the indigenous Elymian towns. Bronze civic coinage of this type belongs to the earliest phases of Greek bronze currency on Sicily, a practice Selinos adopted well before most mainland Greek cities considered bronze a legitimate monetary medium. The city would be annihilated by Carthage in 409 BC, making all pre-destruction civic bronzes terminal issues by definition.