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Research Coins: The Coin Shop

 

Gorini Plate Coin – Ex Moretti Collection

525522. Sold For $12750

LUCANIA, Poseidonia. Circa 530-500 BC. AR Half-Nomos – Drachm (21.5mm, 3.34 g, 12h). Poseidon advancing right, preparing to throw trident; ΠOΣ (Σ facing downward) to left / Incuse of obverse, but ΠOΣ (Σ facing downward) retrograde and in relief. Gorini 6 = Basel 160 (this coin); HN Italy 1108; SNG ANS 619. Old cabinet tone. Near EF. Exceptional for type.


Ex Gemini X (13 January 2013), lot 8; Athos D. Moretti Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica 13, 8 October 1998), lot 160.

Poseidonia, later called Paestum, was a coastal city on the front instep of the Italian “boot.” Founded circa 600 BC by colonists expelled from nearby Sybaris, it took its name from a shrine to Poseidon they erected on the Tyrrhenian coast. The site today features three beautifully preserved Doric temples. The incuse coinage of Poseidonia, consisting of silver nomoi (or staters) and fractions, offers some of the best examples of archaic Greek art to be found in Magna Graecia. This striking half-nomos or drachm is notable in depicting a young, beardless Poseidon brandishing his trademark trident. The striding profile-yet-frontal pose owes much to the conventions of Egyptian figural iconography.