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Stater
| Issuer | Poseidonia (Lucania) |
|---|---|
| Year | 520 BC - 500 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 7.52 g |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Poseidon depicted beardless and nude save for a chlamys draped over both outstretched arms, striding vigorously to the right in the early Archaic style. The deity's left arm is raised aloft, brandishing a trident in the act of casting, while the right arm extends forward. The retrograde ethnic legend 'M◊Π' (for 'Poseidonia') appears in the field, rendered in archaic Greek characters. The entire composition is executed in high relief within a plain border, reflecting the bold, monumental aesthetic characteristic of early South Italian coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (520 BC - 500 BC) |
| Additional information |
Poseidonia was a Sybarite colony on the Tyrrhenian coast of Lucania, founded around 600 BC. When Sybaris itself was obliterated by Croton in 510 BC, Poseidonia's relative isolation spared it — and coins of this early period represent the civic output of a city that had just watched its mother-polis annihilated. The extensive reference concordance this type carries reflects its anchor position in the study of early South Italian silver; nearly every major collection catalogued incuse-period staters treated Poseidonia as a benchmark series.
The incuse technique, shared among a cluster of Achaean colonies in Magna Graecia, remains one of the more debated technical choices in Greek numismatics — whether a monetary convention, a religious signal, or a mark of political alliance among those cities is still unresolved.