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!
Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Katane |
|---|---|
| Year | 412 BC - 403 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 | 17.05 g |
| 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 | Greek |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Laureate head of Apollo facing left in majestic high relief, his flowing hair elaborately rendered with fine incised curls bound by an olive wreath; a tendril with berries appears before the face, and a reed or laurel branch is visible behind the neck. The legend ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ curves above in large Greek letters along the upper field. The portrait exemplifies the refined naturalistic style of the master engraver Euainetos, displaying exceptional artistic quality characteristic of the finest Sicilian coinage of the period. |
| 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 |
Katane's silver coinage of this period sits at the intersection of two catastrophes: the Athenian Sicilian Expedition, which collapsed in 413 BC with the near-total destruction of the expeditionary force, and the subsequent Carthaginian invasions that destabilized much of eastern Sicily through the following decade. The city changed hands more than once during these years, and coinage production was anything but continuous.
The dies for this series are attributed to the so-called Katane Master, working in the idiom of the great Syracusan engravers. Kraay and Hirmer's attribution places this firmly in the post-Athenian-disaster decade, when civic identity — and the coinage expressing it — was under genuine political pressure.