The Coinage of Dyrrhachion in Illyria

CNG 96, Lot: 86. Estimate $300. Sold for $190. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ILLYRIA, Dyrrhachion. Circa 340-280 BC. AR Stater (20mm, 10.57 g, 9h). Cow standing right, looking back at suckling calf standing left below; c/m: eye(?) within incuse circle / Double stellate pattern, divided by double line, in double linear square border; club below; all within linear circle border. Maier 1; Meadows, CH (forthcoming) 25 (this coin); SNG Copenhagen 421 var. (single line between stars); BMC 1 var. (same). VF, edge split, flan flaw on reverse. Interesting countermark.

The designs of the staters of Korkyra as well as its colonies, Apollonia and Dyrrhachion, have been the subject of much numismatic speculation. Eckhel (Doctrina numorum veterum [Vienna, 1792/3], II:155) accepted the view of Laurentius Beger (Observationes Et Conjecturae In Numismata Quaedam Antiqua [Brandenburg, 1691]), who argued that the reverse design represented the garden of Alkinöos, the mythical king of Phaiakia, described in detail by the poet Homer (Od. 7.112-133). Based on the assumption that mythical Phaiakia was the island of ancient Korkyra (mod. Corfu), and knowing that Korkyrans colonized both Apollonia and Dyrrhachion, Beger (and through him, Eckhel) concluded that the central elements were flowers and that the overall design must represent either the layout of the garden, or the doors leading to it. Later, most numismatists, such as Böckh, Müller, Friedlander, and von Sallet, argued that the central elements of the design were more star-like, while Gardner favored a floral interpretation, albeit as a reference to Apollo Aristaios or Nomios, not the garden of Alkinöos. Most recently, Nicolet-Pierre revisited the issue of the reverse design in her article on the archaic coinage of Korkyra ("À props du monnayage archaïque de Corcyre," SNR 88 [2009], pp. 2-3), and offered a novel interpretation. Noting a passage of Thucydides (3.70.4) in which that author cited the existence on the island of a sacred precinct (temenos) dedicated to Zeus and Alkinöos, she suggested that the reverse design might have been inspired by this, and not Homer's garden of Alkinöos.

Over time, new discoveries have clarified the full conspectus of the archaic and classical coinage at Korkyra and its colonies, Apollonia and Dyrrhachion. The reverse design of the archaic staters consists of a pair of incuse punches, consisting of stars (BMC 1 and pl. XXI, 1). That the symbol was a star is certain, as fractions of this series and subsequent issues with a star on the obverse make plain. One stater (BMC 10 and pl. XXI, 2), puts the star design in a more abstract arrangement, becoming the precursor of the reverse design type employed in later stater issues (BMC 39 and pl. XXI, 9). The striking lines formed by the incuse punches are retained in the later design as lines of the frame. Thus, the staters of Apollonia, Dyrhachion, and Korkyra demonstrate a meticulous progressive recopying of an archaic coin type that continued under its colonies, and not an allusion to a possible Homeric past. Unfortunately, the underlying meaning of the original type, two incuse squares containing stars, in the archaic period remains a mystery.