Stater

Kroton's early staters are among the most technically distinctive coins produced in Magna Graecia, struck using the incuse technique pioneered — or at minimum systematized — by the cities of the Achaean colonial network in southern Italy. Where contemporary Greek mints were producing coins with a relief obverse and a rough incuse punch reverse, Kroton and its neighbors inverted the design into a mirrored incuse on the reverse, a method demanding far greater die-cutting precision. The reason this convention emerged among the Achaean colonies specifically remains debated; Pythagorean philosophical influence has been proposed, unconvincingly, for over a century.

Kroton was at the height of its political and military power during this striking period, having destroyed Sybaris in 510 BC.