Ancient Greek - AR Stater - Barley Ear Coin - Circa 470-440 BC
$3,200
Denomination: AR Stater
Mint: Lucania. Metapontum
Date: Circa 470-440 BC
Mount: 14K gold with diamond accents on the bale.
Grade: NGC 4327610-018. XF
Description: LUCANIA. Metapontum. Ca. 470-440 BC. AR stater (20mm, 12h). NGC XF, over-struck, edge marks. MET (retrograde). Obverse: Barley ear with five grains; rams head on left; guilloche border on raised rim. Reverse: Incuse Barley ear with six grains; striated border on incuse rim.
History: Though Metapontum was an ancient Greek Achaean colony, various traditions assigned to it a much earlier origin. Strabo and Solinus ascribe its foundation to a body of Pylians, a part of those who had followed Nestor to Troy. Justin, conversely, tells us it was founded by Epeius; in proof of which the inhabitants showed, in a temple of Minerva, the tools which the hero had used to build the Trojan Horse. Another tradition, reported by Ephorus, assigned to it a Phocian origin, and called Daulius, the tyrant of Crisa near Delphi, its founder. Other legends carried back its origin to a still more remote period. Antiochus of Syracuse said that it was originally called Metabus, from a hero of that name, who appears to have been identified with the Metapontus who figured in the Greek mythical story as the husband of Melanippe and father of Aeolus and Boeotus.
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