A Scarce Drachm of Metapontion

The Temple of Hera (“Tavole Palatine”), late 6th-century BCE Doric sanctuary near Metaponto (ancient Metapontion/Metapontum), Basilicata, Italy. Image source: Parco Archeologico dell'Area urbana di Metaponto

Today's coin of interest was struck at Metapontion in Lucania (South Italy), ca. 325-275 BC, late Classical into early Hellenistic. That date‑band and the owl / barley‑ear with kerykeion type match standard references (HN Italy 1611; HGC I 1091).

Lucania, Metapontion, circa 325-275 BC, AR Drachm (16 mm, 3.21 g, 8 h).

Obv: Owl, with wings closed, standing to right on olive branch; in upper left field, ΣΙ.

Rev: META Barley ear with leaf to right; in right field, keykeion.

Ref: HGC 1, 1091. HN Italy 1611. Johnston Class F, 1.3 (same reverse die).

Notes: Attractive, light toning. Old scrape on obverse, otherwise, very fine. Ex Busso Peus 435, 31 October 2023, 32, and privately purchased from Hirsch in 2002. A scarce coin with <30 in ACSearch.

What was happening at this time?

This is the generation after Alexander the Molossian and before/during the Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC), a turbulent window when the Italiote Greek cities were defending themselves against Lucanians and Bruttians, managing alliances (Taras foremost), and grappling with rising Roman power. Hoard analysis in the ANS study of Metapontion’s late coinage (Johnston, Coinage of Metapontum Part 3) places the owl-kerykeion fractions among issues circulating well before Tarentum’s last classical phases, anchoring them in this late‑4th/early‑3rd‑century landscape of constant military pressure and shifting leagues.

What the iconography says?

Obverse: Owl on olive branch. In Greek visual language the owl is Athena’s bird; on South‑Italian civic coinage it often functions as a compact sign for watchfulness and prudence and, secondarily, as a nod to widely recognized Athenian monetary imagery. This coin shows the owl standing right on an olive sprig, here is a British Museum catalogue entry for this drachm type.

Reverse: META and barley‑ear. The barley ear is Metapontion’s age‑old badge, an emblem of the city’s famed grain‑rich plain, paired with the ethnic META. Both the badge and legend are the mint’s “signature” throughout its silver coinage.

Symbol: kerykeion (caduceus). The kerykeion of Hermes in the right field is a control mark, part of a larger late series in which Metapontion combined symbols and short letter groups to track issues and officials. Johnston devotes a section to these “Symbols and Signatures”, noting how meticulously Metapontion used them in the 4th-3rd centuries.

Letters ΣΙ in field (obv.). These two letters are a control or magistrate mark, not a legend, again typical of the city’s late silver. Johnston explicitly treats such letters as administrative controls rather than types with independent symbolic meaning.

Numismatic notes on this place and period

Plate from The Coinage of Metapontum

A fixed civic badge with rotating controls. Metapontion keeps its barley ear constant, while symbols/letters like the kerykeion and ΣΙ change by die or tranche, an administratively “tidy” habit Johnston highlights as a hallmark of the mint.

Late fractions on a lighter module. This 3.21g drachm sits in the light, late‑fourth‑century drachm band used across South Italy (well below the old 3.9 g “Achaean” drachm). Johnston’s Part 3 discusses these reductions and the associated fraction‑heavy currency mix as cities adapted to new economic and military needs.

Fabric details : late Metapontion silver often shows smallish flans (≈ 16–18 mm), careful die‑control, and variable die‑axes (the mint did not fix axes; this piece at “8 h” is normal). Johnston’s “Fabric, Weights and Die‑positions” chapter summarizes these shop‑floor habits.

Although this coin is later, Metapontion was part of Magna‑Graecia and issued incuse staters; by this period the mint had moved to conventional double‑relief but kept its old badge (the grain ear) as a through‑line of civic identity. For type continuity at the city, see HN Italy’s Metapontion section and the BM’s cross‑references to BMC Italy.

Metapontion, c. 325–275 BC, in a decade between Italic wars and the Pyrrhic crisis, struck a light silver drachm that marries an owl on olive (a terse Athenaic virtue‑signal) to the city’s proud barley ear and the kerykeion control, that Ann Johnston’s ANS monograph uses to reconstruct Metapontion’s late monetary administration.

References:

• British Museum, coin 1867,0101.225 (Metapontion drachm with owl/olive and barley‑ear + kerykeion; HN Italy 1611), with date range 325–275 BC.

• Ann Johnston, The Coinage of Metapontum, Part 3 (ANS NNM 164, 1990): hoard notes on the owl–kerykeion drachm, “Symbols and Signatures,” and “Fabric, Weights and Die‑positions.”