See full images — free registration
Continue with Google — it's free or register with email

Siglos

Issuer Soloi
Year 500 BC - 480 BC
Type Log in to see details
Value Siglos (1)
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
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description Log in to see details
Obverse script Log in to see details
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Facing Gorgoneion depicted in high relief, presenting the characteristic apotropaic visage with wide-staring eyes, broad flat nose, and protruding tongue flanked by prominent fangs; coiling serpents frame the face on either side. The design fills the roughly square field of the hammered flan, rendered in the bold archaic manner typical of late 6th to early 5th century BC Cypriot mint production.
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Edge Plain
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

Soloi was one of the ten kingdoms of ancient Cyprus, and its coins from this period reflect the island's position between competing Greek and Persian spheres of influence. The siglos denomination itself was Persian in origin, adopted across the eastern Mediterranean as Achaemenid commercial reach expanded westward. Zapiti & Michaelidou's cataloguing of this type remains the standard reference for Cypriot coinage, their work drawing heavily on hoards recovered from the island in the late twentieth century.