Metapontum

Historical Overview

Metapontum was a Greek polis located in Magna Graecia (present-day Southern Italy), known for its agricultural prosperity. It is located between two rivers: the Causentus (west side; modern name: Basento) and the Bradanus (east side; modern name: Bradano), which undoubtedly factored into the great fertility of the region (Florenzano 106). Metapontum began minting coins ca. 550 BCE and their coinage featured an image of a six-rowed ear of barley (Kraay 165). Barley was a major agricultural product in Metapontum, which brought the polis great economic success. So it seems they wanted to honor and advertise the thing that brought them great wealth by placing it on their coinage (Carter 208-209).

Art Historical and Economic Overview

Coin 2014.06.08 is a silver stater of Metapontum. This coin is an example of the incuse technique, a method of coin striking used only by the poleis of Magna Graecia. The coins were struck with a high relief obverse die, and an intaglio reverse die carved with the same image as the obverse, requiring extreme precision when aligning the dies. This method of minting resulted in larger, flatter coins than other Greek coinage, and may have been developed to facilitate overstriking (Seltman 3-4).

Metapontum was established as a colony of Sybaris, ca. 690-680 BCE, in order to create a protective barrier between the Achaean cities and the rapidly expanding Spartan colony of Tarentum (Astour 27). Grain was commonly depicted on the coinage of Metapontum, as the sprawling hinterlands where grain was cultivated brought the region such prosperity that they wanted to honor it by featuring it on their coinage (Noe 5-7). The ear of grain may have also alluded to the goddess of agriculture, Demeter (Rutter 130). Since they relied heavily on agriculture, they wanted to honor the goddess they believed would aid them in that endeavor. And so Metapontum would continue to do so with their coinage by issuing silver staters with her head on the obverse in a later issue of coinage in the 4th c. BCE (Tsangari 52).

Die evidence shows that Metapontum was producing a large number of coins; however hoard evidence shows that the coins largely remained in southern Italy (Kraay 162-163). Despite such limited evidence, it seems that Metapontum became incredibly affluent due to its agriculture. 

The Incuse Minting Technique in Southern Italy

In the mid-6th c. BCE, the Greek poleis of Magna Graecia began producing what is known as “incuse” coinage. Coins of this type have an obverse rendered in relief, with an intaglio (depressed) version of the image on the obverse appearing on the reverse (Sutherland 15). The technique used to create these coins required incredible precision and artistic skill. The coins were produced by striking a flan placed between an obverse and reverse die, which were both cut with the same image (Kraay 163). The obverse die was hollowed out so that the image would be pressed into it by the raised reverse die, after being struck (Sutherland 15). The dies needed to be precisely aligned to ensure not only that the images were correctly imprinted, but also that the dies and the flans would not be damaged after being struck, as misalignment could crack both (Sutherland 16).

This technique was likely created by one especially influential mint in the area, likely Sybaris or Metapontum, and was subsequently adopted in imitation by others. The coinage of Metapontum seems to be more plentiful, yet in the historical record, Sybaris stands out as the more prosperous city until its destruction by Croton at the end of the 6th century. Thus, given its affluence, it is possible that Sybarite coinage served as a model for replication, especially in its largest colony, Metapontum. An important note on Sybaric coinage is that its incuse minting fabric had not yet been modified by the time of its conquest. After the termination of this minting, after its final minting(fig.1) modification in technique began to take place among the remaining polities, implying that the destruction of Sybaris may have removed an incentive to unify minting among coinage in the area (Rutter 170).

As Magna Graecia possessed very few natural silver sources, none known to be used during this period, the initial Greek polities used intaglio minting to facilitate overstriking of imported coins. Interestingly, they also overstruck domestic coins, as evidenced by Figure 2. This design which features a Tripod with a crab to the right on the obverse, with serpents at the top and base of the tripod, and a three-letter inscription on both sides, is an overstrike of a Metapontine coin (Noe 21). The Metapontine undertype appears below the exergual line and also on the left leg of the Tripod, although it is difficult to fully make out. This minting, which coincides with the fall of Sybaris, could be a victory minting by Croton, both in imagery(Apollo associated symbology) and in the act of overstriking the mint of a Sybaric colony/ally(Fig. 2).