Lucania. Poseidonia. c. 530-500 BC. Drachm, 3.34g. (12h). Obv: Beardless Poseidon, diademed, advancing right with left arm outstretched brandishing trident held high behind head and with mantle falling over both arms. In left field, ΠΟΣ. Border of dots and cable going around at edge. Rx: Incuse of same type. In right field, ΠΟΣ retrograde. Gorini, La monetazione incusa della Magna Grecia (1975), p. 31, 6 (this coin). SNG Cop. 1273. SNG ANS 619. HN Italy 1108. AMB 160 (this coin). Good VF.
Ex Al Zaloom Collection. Ex NAC 13, 8 October 1998, lot 160. Ex Moretti Coll..
The fact that Poseidon is beardless is exceptional and interesting: this is one of the latest examples for an early archaic guise of the brothers Zeus and Poseidon representing them as young men. A beardless Zeus, for example, is known from the pediment of the temple at Corcyra, c. 590 BC, and from a few vase paintings. It is remarkable to find this old iconography still persisting on a coin.