Description
Circa 400-325 BC. AR nomos or didrachm, 7.22 gr., 22 mm.
Obv.: head of Apollo to the right, wearing laurel wreath.
Rev.: tripod with high neck surmounted by wreaths, legs terminating in lion’s feet; filleted laurel branch to the left; downward to the right: KPO.
Ref.: Attianese 143; HN Italy 2177; SNG ANS 399 (same obv. die).
Old collection toning. A few old marks under tone. Extremely Fine.
From the Stephen Jordan collection. Ex Triton II (New York 1998), lot 126; ex Numismatic Fine Arts MBS 16 (Berkeley 1960), lot 103, Gans collection; Naville V (Luzern 1923), lot 717, doubles du British Museum….; ex Merzbacher (Munich 1910), lot 168, French Amateur collection.
As with many cities in Magna Graecia, Kroton was established by colonists from mainland Greece. Myskellos, obeying a directive of the oracle of Delphi, led a group of Achaian settlers to the site and founded the city around 710 BC. This divine sanction is represented by the tripod of the oracle, which became the civic badge of Kroton and is featured on its coinage. Kroton was among the first cities to produce coinage in Italy, its earliest being of the incuse type struck on the Achaian standard. As evidenced by its bountiful coinage, Kroton was one of the most important and wealthiest cities of southern Italy. Although its fortunes rose and fell over the centuries, it maintained its production of a wide array of denominations and metals until the Roman period.
