It served no practical purpose in facilitating the stacking of coins, since even with matching images in relief and negative, irregularities would have hindered this method of storage. The origin of this unusual design is difficult to pinpoint (Rutter 1997, 18–19). These indicate that both sides were fashioned separately, but with great attention to detail, to keep them looking like the same image. Upon close examination, what appear to be identical images on the obverse and reverse reveal their differences in the small details: on our coin, the size and shape of the dots in the circular border, the shapes of the individual kernels, and the legend MET on the obverse, to the left of the ear of grain. This is, however, clearly not how the coins were made. This technique places the same central image in relief on the obverse and aligned in negative on the reverse, creating an effect that looks almost as if the coin were stamped with an embossed seal. Instead, the first coins minted around the same time by the cities of Metapontum, Croton, and Sybaris, all on the Ionian Coast of Italy, were made with the unique incuse technique (Rutter 1997, 17). The early coins of Magna Graecia were not like those of mainland Greece, which had two different relief images on the obverse and reverse. This silver coin from Metapontum is one of the earliest such coins, and it has a number of unusual features, reflecting the complex identity of the city that produced it. Adopted in mailand Greece in the early sixth century BCE from the Near East, coinage spread quickly westward, where the cities of Magna Graecia, in southern Italy and Sicily, began producing their own coins sometime in the mid-sixth century BCE. They carried messages that unadorned weights of metal never could, announcing the origin of the coin and the identity of the people who made it. Comparanda: BMC ( Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum) 238.3 SNGANS ( Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: American Numismatic Society) 160Īncient coins were more than just money. With her enigmatic Ionian smile she is probably to be ascribed to the region of Metapontum, her maker, maybe widely travelled and cognizant of what was going on throughout most of the main centres in Magna Graecia, or of a personality sufficient to leave his imprint on its output.Metapontum, Italy, mid–late sixth century BCE. However, just as the marble Motya youth was in this author's opinion probably made in Selinunte or nearby, by an artist from the Locri-Reggio area, this head also is the creation of an outstanding artist. 124, we are unable to attribute her to a particular school. 123, and for her diadem with the candelabrum statuette, cat. However, though she bears comparison for some features such as the general contour of the eyelids with terracotta heads from Medma, a Locrian colony, and though she has a distant rapport with certain heads from temple E in Selinunte, not to mention parallels with the silver gilt masks, cat. ![]() A true product of Magna Graecia she exemplifies its finest work and expresses its artistic koine. This archaic head with its enigmatic and captivating smile fascinates and intrigues but keeps its secrets. Missing: sections of the diadem and hair over the right ear-ring and nose hair over forehead and right of forehead badly chipped, as well as right cheek and chin, abrasion to left eyebrow, both eyes and left side of face. Much damaged and the whole back of the head sliced off. Sculpted of a fine, thick-grained marble.Ĭondition: the surface where still smooth an off-white to beige colour, parts covered with a skin of limestone of sandy texture with blackish specks.
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