High Quality Metal For Issue

5666141.

BRUTTIUM, Kaulonia. Circa 475-425 BC. AR Nomos (21mm, 8.18 g, 1h). Apollo advancing right, holding branch aloft in right hand, small daimon running right on extended left arm; KAVΛ to left; to right, stag standing right, head reverted / Stag standing right; retrograde KAVΛ above, laurel branch to right. Noe, Caulonia, Group F, 93 (same dies); HN Italy 2046; SNG München 1404 (same dies); Jameson 411 (same dies). Faint toning over lustrous surfaces, a couple of minor marks. Near EF. Excellent metal for issue.

Kaulonia’s early coinage, circa 525-500 BC, was of the spread flan, relief/incuse fabric adopted by many southern Italian cities in the later sixth century BC. The design featured the city’s patron god Apollo striding forward, with a small winged figure perched on his arm; a stag with head reverted appeared in the right field. Kaulonia’s second phase of coinage commenced about 475 BC, with a reduced diameter silver nomos of a more conventional relief fabric on both sides. The obverse retains the same figure of Apollo, but the stag moves to the reverse. This design persisted until the city’s capture and destruction by Syracuse in 389 BC.