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!
Stater
| Issuer | Holmoi |
|---|---|
| Year | 440 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Variable alignment ↺ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A nude male rider depicted in the act of sliding or dismounting from a horse galloping to the right; the figure holds the reins with his left hand and a whip in his raised right hand, with both legs positioned to the right side of the horse in an archaic rendering of equestrian motion. The composition is executed in a lively, archaizing style characteristic of early Greek coinage from the Achaean colonial sphere. A border of dots encircles the design within the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The stern of a galley rendered in profile to the left, its curved hull and steering oar rendered with crisp detail, set within a broad and deep circular incuse square with rounded corners — a hallmark of early Greek hammered coinage technique. The ethnic legend ΟΛΜΙ appears in archaic Greek characters along the upper portion of the incuse field, identifying the issuing community of Holmoi. The bold incuse depression and the confined placement of the galley motif are consistent with the archaic coinage tradition of southern Italy and the western Greek world circa 440 BC. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Holmoi was a minor coastal settlement in Epirus or possibly Akarnania — its precise location remains debated — which makes its coinage historically awkward to place within regional monetary networks. Issues attributed to this polis are extremely rare, and the city itself disappears from ancient sources without explanation, leaving numismatists to reconstruct its existence almost entirely from the coins themselves.