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Greek coins, Sybaris, Nomos

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:28,000.00 CHF Estimated At:35,000.00 - 43,750.00 CHF
Greek coins, Sybaris, Nomos
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Greek coins, Sybaris, Nomos ca. 530-510, AR 8.03 g. Bull standing l. on dotted exergual line; in upper field r., NSKA. In exergue, MV. Border of dots. Rev. The same type incuse without ethnic. Striated borders. Gorini 8 var and enlarged p. 112 (MV in relief on reverse, this obverse die). Jameson 346 var. (MV in relief on reverse, this obverse die). Historia Numorum Italy 1730. Of the highest rarity, apparently only the second specimen known of this variety and the third of this type. A magnificent representation in the finest style of the period. Perfectly struck on a broad flan with a lovely light tone. Good extremely fine From a private Swiss collection. Reconstructing the history of Sybaris and its coinage is a task fraught with difficulty. The city was founded by Achaeans late in the 8th Century B.C. at an ideal location on a fertile plain on the Gulf of Taranto. The city apparently had a population nearly equal to Athens, had a defensive wall six miles in length, and Strabo says that as many as 25 cities and four native peoples had come under its authority. The coinage of Sybaris, which began sometime between about 550 and 530 B.C., supports the tales of this city’s wealth – so great that its name became synonymous with opulence. Not only is there an extensive series of coins from Sybaris, but incuse issues with the Sybarite bull (symbolising fertility, or the river god Crathis?) are known from Sirinos and Pyxoes in alliance, and from unspecified cities using the inscriptions ‘SO’ and ‘AMI’. Wealth at Sybaris seems to have been concentrated in the hands of the few, which caused an uprising to expel the ruling class. Some took up exile in nearby Croton, and after some poorly handled exchanges, the two states resorted to war; despite the larger forces mustered by Sybaris, Croton was victorious, and in 510 utterly destroyed the city after a siege. Many of the siege survivors fled to nearby Laus, a colony of Sybaris, and while there struck a coinage that also employed the bull design. About the same time, Sybaris was re-founded under the dominion of Croton, and not long after it gained autonomy early in the 5th Century, it was destroyed again by Croton in about 475 or 470. The city had yet three more incarnations. In about 453 it rose from the ashes, perhaps by some initiative of Poseidonia, only to be destroyed by Croton roughly five years later. Then, in 446 it was re-founded with help from Athens, which two years later drew colonists from throughout the Greek mainland; however, the Sybarites were soon expelled by the new settlers. At some point in this latter re-founding the name of the city was changed to Thurium, under which name it began a significant coinage of its own with Athena gracing the obverse. The fifth and final incarnation of Sybaris took place in about 440, when the expelled Sybarites founded a new city on the river Traeis. The site seems to have been identified, and the remains of a theatre show that it must have been a success, even if modestly so. Kraay’s suggestion in 1958 seems now to be generally accepted that silver staters and triobols formerly given to earlier phases were in fact produced by ‘Sybaris V’ in its new location. The early nomoi of Sybaris are usually inscribed VM or MV, yet there are rare and enigmatic issues of the period, such as the present coin, with the additional inscription NSKA or MVBAPSTAM. The meanings of these are a matter of conjecture, and we can only hope that one day the mystery they represent will be resolved through clever research or a fortunate discovery.