Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Siglos - Sidqmelek
| Issuer | Lapethos |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 435 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 head of Athena wearing a low, close-fitting helmet adorned with bull's ears at the sides, rendered in a frontal archaic style characteristic of Cypriot coinage of the mid-fifth century BC. The image is set within a recessed incuse square, with traces of Phoenician inscription visible in the left and right fields, reading the royal name Sidqmelek. The facing head type reflects strong Phoenician iconographic influence on the Lapethos mint. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | (Translation: Sidqmelek) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Lapethos, on the northern coast of Cyprus, was one of the island's Phoenician-dominated city-kingdoms, and its coinage from this period reflects a mint operating under the cultural pressure of competing Hellenic and Semitic influences. Sidqmelek — whose name is Phoenician — was among the city's rulers during a stretch when Cyprus sat awkwardly between Achaemenid Persian suzerainty and Athenian ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly in the aftermath of the Delian League's campaigns in the region.
The siglos denomination itself borrows from Persian weight standards, a telling concession to the dominant imperial economy of the day.