Mint of Metapontum

c. 550 BC/BCE to unknwon date

Metapontum or Metapontium (romanized: Metapontion) was an important city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf of Tarentum, between the river Bradanus and the Casuentus (modern Basento). The coins of Metapontum, as already observed, are very numerous; and many of the later ones of very beautiful workmanship. Those of more ancient date, like the early coins of Crotona and Sybaris, have an incuse fabric; that is to say that the relief design of the obverse is repeated intaglio on the reverse. Some have speculated that this feature was devised by Pythagoras. The die axes are always aligned. The more common type on later obverses is the head of Ceres but in the mid-late 4th century BCE, the head of the hero Leucippus, the reputed founder of the city appears for the first time. This is thought to be related to the expedition of Alexander I of Epirus to Southern Italy.

Subject ID: 127812

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c. 550 BC/BCE to unknwon date

Metapontum or Metapontium (romanized: Metapontion) was an important city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf of Tarentum, between the river Bradanus and the Casuentus (modern Basento). The coins of Metapontum, as already observed, are very numerous; and many of the later ones of very beautiful workmanship. Those of more ancient date, like the early coins of Crotona and Sybaris, have an incuse fabric; that is to say that the relief design of the obverse is repeated intaglio on the reverse. Some have speculated that this feature was devised by Pythagoras. The die axes are always aligned. The more common type on later obverses is the head of Ceres but in the mid-late 4th century BCE, the head of the hero Leucippus, the reputed founder of the city appears for the first time. This is thought to be related to the expedition of Alexander I of Epirus to Southern Italy.

Subject ID: 127812

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