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Trichalkon
| Issuer | Messene |
|---|---|
| Year | 50 BC - 30 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Trichalkon = 3 Chalkoi = 3⁄48 Drachm (1⁄16) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Asklepios facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic tradition with finely detailed hair and wreath. The portrait is boldly modeled with strong facial features characteristic of late Hellenistic civic bronze coinage. The field is plain, with no visible legend or inscription on the obverse. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The kerykeion-like staff of Asklepios, entwined by a serpent, depicted prominently in the center of the field. The Greek legend MENIKAP (an abbreviation referencing the magistrate's name) is distributed around the device in two parts, reading ME to the right and NIKAP to the left, consistent with Messenian civic bronze issues of the late Hellenistic period. |
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| Additional information |
Messene in this period was navigating the turbulent final decades of the Roman Republic, caught between competing Roman factions and the remnants of Achaean political identity. The city had been refounded by Epaminondas in 369 BC after centuries of Spartan domination, and by the first century BC it retained enough civic ambition to maintain a local bronze coinage — a privilege increasingly contingent on Roman tolerance rather than Messenian autonomy.
The trichalkon denomination is specific to the Peloponnesian regional system. BCD 748 places this issue within a tightly clustered group distinguished by subtle die differences documented in the Peloponnesos sale corpus.