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Pentonkion
| Issuer | Menainon |
|---|---|
| Year | 200 BC - 150 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Litra |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Laureate bust of Apollo facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic style characteristic of Sicilian civic coinage of the second century BC. The hair is bound with a laurel wreath, and the bust displays a draped shoulder. The Greek letter Π (pi), serving as the mark of value denoting the pentonkion denomination, appears in the field behind the head. The flan is irregular and the strike somewhat flat, consistent with provincial bronze production of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Menainon was a small inland Sikel settlement in central Sicily, modern Mineo, that began issuing its own bronze coinage in the Hellenistic period as civic identity increasingly expressed itself through local mintage rather than reliance on the dominant issues of Syracuse. The pentonkion denomination — worth five onkiai — reflects the persistence of the Siculo-Greek weight standard long after Syracusan political dominance had collapsed under Roman pressure.
By the mid-second century BC, Roman Sicily was already a provincia, and civic bronze of this kind was operating on borrowed time.