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obolos 25 23 Oct 2022
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ILLYRIA. Dyrrhachion (as Epidamnos). Circa 436-433 BC. Stater (Silver, 19.5 mm, 8.52 g, 3 h). E Pegasos with curved wing flying right; below, club to right. Rev. Head of Athena to right, wearing Corinthian helmet. Calciati 1 (same obverse die). J. H. Kagan, "Epidamnus of Ephyre (Elea). A Note on the Coinage of Corinth and her Colonies at the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War," Studies Price Addendum 1 (A1/P1). A remarkably important coin relating to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, and perhaps one of just two known. Nearly very fine.
One of the causes of the First Peloponnesian, or Archidamian, War (431-421) was the episode where the oligarchs of Epidamnos had been expelled from the city and a democracy formed. The exiled Epidamnian oligarchs appealed to nearby Corcyra for their assistance to regain power, while the democrats likewise sought external assistance, in this case from Corinth, both the mother cities who had jointly founded Epidamnos in 627 BC. Kraay, in several articles published subsequent to the publication of his seminal Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley, 1976), was working on a revision of Ravel's still highly important but somewhat outdated Les 'poulains' de Corinthe I (Basle, 1936) when he came across a Pegasos stater with the letter epsilon on the obverse below the winged horse. This he attributed to the 430s and assigned to Epidamnos. Interestingly, the obverse die of that coin had been subsequently reengraved, replacing the epsilon with a qoppa. Furthermore, through means of a detailed die-study of the Pegasos staters of Ambrakia (see Kraay, "The Coinage of Ambracia and the Preliminaries of the Peloponnesian War," QT VIII [1979], pp. 37-66), Kraay noted stylistic similarities between a large output of Ambrakian staters struck during the mid-430s with concurrent large issues from Corinth and Leukas, and special single issues from the mints at Anaktorion, Potidaia, and one using the letter epsilon. All of this evidence allowed Kraay to reach a conclusion of great historical significance: "the conflict between Corcyra and Epidamnos is reflected in large coordinated coinages from Corinth and her colonies" (Kagan, p. 164). In order to protect Epidamnos from Corcyra, Corinth needed funds, and as well as doing so herself instructed her colonies to strike coins to finance the upcoming conflict with Corcyra.
Our coin, which shows the letter epsilon below Pegasos on the obverse, also has a club symbol. This is known from just two dies: Calciati 1 = ACGC 280, and Calciati 1/1 = Weber 3824 (both struck from Kagan's dies A2/P2), and our coin. However, both of the coins illustrated in Calciati employ a reverse die that is quite distinct from the die used to strike our coin. In 1829, a coin seemingly from our dies (Kagan die numbers A1/P1) was published by the French archaeologist Raoul-Rochette, "Médailles Corinthiennes d'Ambracie" in Annali dell'Instituto do Corrispondenza Archeologica I Rome and Paris, 1829), p. 332, but was unillustrated. This was subsequently rectified by the collector himself: The Marquis de La Goy, Mélanges de Numismatique (Aix, 1845), p. 18 and pl. II, 3. The engraving there of La Goy's coin, the whereabouts of which are not known today but which is sufficiently different from our coin to indicate that they are not one and the same, is reproduced in Kagan (ppl. 36, 12 and 37, 1), and appears to illustrate the same dies. This, of course, cannot be certain since it is an engraving. However, according to Kagan, "we know from a coin of Tiberius in Paris (RPC 5451 = La Goy pl. II, 1) that the engravings in La Goy's volume are of high enough quality to allow die comparisons to be made but that also caution is needed" (Kagan p. 167, note 18).
Thus, the coin we offer here is of paramount historical importance, as well as an extreme rarity. Regarding the latter, it is just one of two coins from these dies, the only other one the whereabouts of which are unknown but was previously in the Marquis de La Goy's collection, and one of just four of this type known at all. Regarding the former, it was struck either by or in the name of the very city which had ousted the hated oligarchs, and was done so in order to pay for the upcoming conflict associated with their expulsion! This then, indeed, is an incredibly interesting piece, and will make a fine acquisition for a lucky collector.
For those interested in reading further on this interesting coin, Kagan has uploaded his article to his Academia.edu account (link).
One of the causes of the First Peloponnesian, or Archidamian, War (431-421) was the episode where the oligarchs of Epidamnos had been expelled from the city and a democracy formed. The exiled Epidamnian oligarchs appealed to nearby Corcyra for their assistance to regain power, while the democrats likewise sought external assistance, in this case from Corinth, both the mother cities who had jointly founded Epidamnos in 627 BC. Kraay, in several articles published subsequent to the publication of his seminal Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley, 1976), was working on a revision of Ravel's still highly important but somewhat outdated Les 'poulains' de Corinthe I (Basle, 1936) when he came across a Pegasos stater with the letter epsilon on the obverse below the winged horse. This he attributed to the 430s and assigned to Epidamnos. Interestingly, the obverse die of that coin had been subsequently reengraved, replacing the epsilon with a qoppa. Furthermore, through means of a detailed die-study of the Pegasos staters of Ambrakia (see Kraay, "The Coinage of Ambracia and the Preliminaries of the Peloponnesian War," QT VIII [1979], pp. 37-66), Kraay noted stylistic similarities between a large output of Ambrakian staters struck during the mid-430s with concurrent large issues from Corinth and Leukas, and special single issues from the mints at Anaktorion, Potidaia, and one using the letter epsilon. All of this evidence allowed Kraay to reach a conclusion of great historical significance: "the conflict between Corcyra and Epidamnos is reflected in large coordinated coinages from Corinth and her colonies" (Kagan, p. 164). In order to protect Epidamnos from Corcyra, Corinth needed funds, and as well as doing so herself instructed her colonies to strike coins to finance the upcoming conflict with Corcyra.
Our coin, which shows the letter epsilon below Pegasos on the obverse, also has a club symbol. This is known from just two dies: Calciati 1 = ACGC 280, and Calciati 1/1 = Weber 3824 (both struck from Kagan's dies A2/P2), and our coin. However, both of the coins illustrated in Calciati employ a reverse die that is quite distinct from the die used to strike our coin. In 1829, a coin seemingly from our dies (Kagan die numbers A1/P1) was published by the French archaeologist Raoul-Rochette, "Médailles Corinthiennes d'Ambracie" in Annali dell'Instituto do Corrispondenza Archeologica I Rome and Paris, 1829), p. 332, but was unillustrated. This was subsequently rectified by the collector himself: The Marquis de La Goy, Mélanges de Numismatique (Aix, 1845), p. 18 and pl. II, 3. The engraving there of La Goy's coin, the whereabouts of which are not known today but which is sufficiently different from our coin to indicate that they are not one and the same, is reproduced in Kagan (ppl. 36, 12 and 37, 1), and appears to illustrate the same dies. This, of course, cannot be certain since it is an engraving. However, according to Kagan, "we know from a coin of Tiberius in Paris (RPC 5451 = La Goy pl. II, 1) that the engravings in La Goy's volume are of high enough quality to allow die comparisons to be made but that also caution is needed" (Kagan p. 167, note 18).
Thus, the coin we offer here is of paramount historical importance, as well as an extreme rarity. Regarding the latter, it is just one of two coins from these dies, the only other one the whereabouts of which are unknown but was previously in the Marquis de La Goy's collection, and one of just four of this type known at all. Regarding the former, it was struck either by or in the name of the very city which had ousted the hated oligarchs, and was done so in order to pay for the upcoming conflict associated with their expulsion! This then, indeed, is an incredibly interesting piece, and will make a fine acquisition for a lucky collector.
For those interested in reading further on this interesting coin, Kagan has uploaded his article to his Academia.edu account (link).