Silver Stater of Metapontum (Metapontion), Lucania, Italy, 7.79 g.
Title
Silver Stater of Metapontum (Metapontion), Lucania, Italy, 7.79 g.
Creator
Metapontum (Metapontion), Lucania, Italy
Date
c. 330-300 BCE
Description
Obverse: Head of Demeter facing to right, wearing wreath with barley ears and leaves, necklace, and single-drop earring; ΔΑ in small letters below chin.
Reverse: Ear of barley; plough over leaf in right field, Μ below; ΜΕΤΑ upward at left: Metapontion abbreviated.
Style/Period: Greek (ancient)
Metapontion, located in a rich coastal plain on the Gulf of Taranto, became very prosperous through agriculture, and an ear of barley, probably its main agricultural product, is the consistent reverse type on its coins. The city became so wealthy through its agriculture that it dedicated a "golden harvest" in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (Strabo, Geography 6.264) that some have thought might have been golden sheaves of grain.
The pattern of types on the staters of Metapontion, with frequently changing heads on the obverse and the unchanging city badge, barley, on the reverse, was established in the fifth century and continued until the end of Metapontion's coinage. In the second half of the fourth century, the head is usually that of Demeter or perhaps Persephone, either of whom is appropriate for her role in protecting crops and especially grain. The head with its wreath of grain was probably inspired by Euainetos' similar head of the nymph Arethusa on late fifth-century Syracusan coins (see 91.032).
-- Carol L. Lawton
Bibliography: A. Johnston, The Coinage of Metapontum, Part 3 (American Numismatic Society Numismatic Notes and Monographs 164, New York 1990) 13-16.
The pattern of types on the staters of Metapontion, with frequently changing heads on the obverse and the unchanging city badge, barley, on the reverse, was established in the fifth century and continued until the end of Metapontion's coinage. In the second half of the fourth century, the head is usually that of Demeter or perhaps Persephone, either of whom is appropriate for her role in protecting crops and especially grain. The head with its wreath of grain was probably inspired by Euainetos' similar head of the nymph Arethusa on late fifth-century Syracusan coins (see 91.032).
-- Carol L. Lawton
Bibliography: A. Johnston, The Coinage of Metapontum, Part 3 (American Numismatic Society Numismatic Notes and Monographs 164, New York 1990) 13-16.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Bought from Edward Gans, Jan., 1959.
Identifier
91.009
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Greek, Demeter, barley, leaf, necklace, earring, plough above leaf, Metapontum, Metapontion, Lucania, Italy
Files
Citation
Metapontum (Metapontion), Lucania, Italy, “Silver Stater of Metapontum (Metapontion), Lucania, Italy, 7.79 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/179.