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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Katane (Sicily) |
|---|---|
| Year | 465 BC - 450 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (20) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A brawny river-bull advances to the right in high relief, its muscular body rendered with confident archaic modeling. A heron (or wading bird) perches upon the bull's back, facing right, a characteristic emblem associated with the river Amenanos at Katane. Beneath the bull's hooves lies a large fish in the exergue, symbolizing the fertile waters of the Sicilian river god. The composition occupies the full field of the flan, with no encircling legend, reflecting the early classical style of Sicilian coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (465 BC - 450 BC) |
| Additional information |
Katane sits at the foot of Etna, and its coinage from this period reflects a city still finding its footing after the forced depopulation under Hieron I of Syracuse, who relocated its inhabitants to Leontinoi around 476 BC and resettled the city with Syracusan colonists. The tetradrachms struck after his death in 467 BC — when the original Katanaeans returned and reasserted their identity — belong to one of the more politically loaded reissues in Sicilian numismatics.
Kraay and Hirmer 31 places this piece within the earliest phase of that restored civic coinage, predating the more accomplished engraving associated with the later fifth-century Sicilian masters.