Roma Numismatics Ltd
The Anders Collection Part II 1 Jun 2023
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Lucania, Thourioi Æ 13mm. After 300 BC. Laureate head of Apollo to left / Tripod; ΑXΑΙ to left, ΘΟΥ to right. HN Italy 1925b (AΨΑΙ). 1.63g, 13mm, 5h.
Good Very Fine. Exceedingly Rare; of numismatic importance.
From the Anders Collection, collector's tickets included.
An unusual inscription appears on the reverse of this extremely rare Thourian bronze coin, which is not found anywhere else, and its interpretation is a matter of numismatic importance. The reading of Apsai- (ΑΨΑΙ), as HN Italy suggests, cannot refer to any Greek personal or city name, not even to a Hellenized Latin name. The Psi (Ψ) resembles a Chi (X) and the reading of this word could be either AXAI[OΣ] or ΑΧΑΙ[ΩΝ], assuming then that this coin names a man (Achaios) or one of the tribes (Achaean) that inhabited the city (see Diodorus Siculus, Library, 12.11: 'Since the countryside was extensive and rich, they sent for colonists in large numbers from Greece, and to these they assigned parts of the city and gave them equal shares of the land. Those who continued to live in the city quickly came to possess great wealth, and concluding friendship with the Krotonians they administered their state in admirable fashion. Establishing a democratic form of government, they divided the citizens into ten tribes, to each of which they assigned a name based on the nationality of those who constituted it: three tribes composed of peoples gathered from the Peloponnesus they named the Arcadian, the Achaean, and the Eleian; the same number, gathered from related peoples living outside the Peloponnesus, they named the Boeotian, Amphictyonian, and Dorian; and the remaining four, constituted from other peoples, the Ionian, the Athenian, the Euboean, and the Islander').
Good Very Fine. Exceedingly Rare; of numismatic importance.
From the Anders Collection, collector's tickets included.
An unusual inscription appears on the reverse of this extremely rare Thourian bronze coin, which is not found anywhere else, and its interpretation is a matter of numismatic importance. The reading of Apsai- (ΑΨΑΙ), as HN Italy suggests, cannot refer to any Greek personal or city name, not even to a Hellenized Latin name. The Psi (Ψ) resembles a Chi (X) and the reading of this word could be either AXAI[OΣ] or ΑΧΑΙ[ΩΝ], assuming then that this coin names a man (Achaios) or one of the tribes (Achaean) that inhabited the city (see Diodorus Siculus, Library, 12.11: 'Since the countryside was extensive and rich, they sent for colonists in large numbers from Greece, and to these they assigned parts of the city and gave them equal shares of the land. Those who continued to live in the city quickly came to possess great wealth, and concluding friendship with the Krotonians they administered their state in admirable fashion. Establishing a democratic form of government, they divided the citizens into ten tribes, to each of which they assigned a name based on the nationality of those who constituted it: three tribes composed of peoples gathered from the Peloponnesus they named the Arcadian, the Achaean, and the Eleian; the same number, gathered from related peoples living outside the Peloponnesus, they named the Boeotian, Amphictyonian, and Dorian; and the remaining four, constituted from other peoples, the Ionian, the Athenian, the Euboean, and the Islander').