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Stater
| Issuer | Tarentum |
|---|---|
| Year | 272 BC - 250 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Eagle standing left with wings spread, perched upon a thunderbolt; at the eagle's feet, a small owl facing. In the upper field and to the right, the magistrate's signature ΣΩΚ. Below in the exergual area, the ethnic legend ΤΑΡΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ, identifying the issuing city of Tarentum. The eagle and thunderbolt together form the canonical reverse type of Tarentine gold coinage, emblematic of Zeus's sovereignty. |
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| Additional information |
Tarentum struck gold only under extreme duress. This issue dates to the period when the city had allied with Pyrrhus of Epirus against Rome, and later faced the consequences of that gamble — a Roman siege and eventual capitulation in 272 BC. Gold coinage from Tarentum is overwhelmingly a product of war finance, struck to pay mercenaries and sustain military operations rather than for ordinary commerce. The city's silver stater tradition ran for centuries; gold issues are comparatively rare and tightly clustered around crisis periods.
Vlasto's corpus remains the foundational reference for Tarentine coinage, assembled from a lifetime of collecting focused almost exclusively on this single mint.