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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Selinos |
|---|---|
| Year | 455 BC - 415 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Artemis depicted as charioteer, driving a slow quadriga moving to the right, holding the reins firmly in both hands; Apollo stands at her right, releasing an arrow from his bow. The composition reflects an Archaic-to-early-Classical Sicilian artistic tradition of elaborate mythological chariot scenes. A barley grain occupies the exergue, a recurring civic emblem of Selinos referencing the fertile agricultural lands of the polis. The figures are rendered with confident engraving in a style characteristic of the great Siceliot die-cutters of the fifth century BC. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Selinos, the westernmost Greek colony on Sicily's southern coast, was one of the most prosperous Sicilian poleis of the fifth century — until Carthage razed it in 409 BC with a force reportedly numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The city was never meaningfully rebuilt. Coinage from the later end of this issue's date range may have been struck within decades, possibly years, of that destruction, giving surviving pieces an incidental terminus in violence rather than gradual monetary transition.
The SNG ANS 698 reference places this among a well-documented die study sequence. Selinos's mint output ceased abruptly with the Carthaginian assault of 409 BC.