KYRENAICA. Kyrene. Circa 495/0-475 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 22 mm, 17.44 g, 3 h). Silphium plant with one pair of leaves and ending in umbel; to left and right, fruit. Rev. Bearded head of Zeus Ammon to right, with ram's horn over his ear; all within incuse square. Asyut 829. BMC -, cf. pl. III, 3 (differing obverse). Extremely rare. A very attractive coin of great Archaic beauty. Small test cut on the obverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.


Kyrene and its neighboring cities gained their fabulous wealth not least from the export of the silphium plant, which grew wild in the Kyrenaika and was used both for medical purposes and eaten as a vegetable. Growing demand and the over-cultivation of the hinterland eventually led to the extinction of the wild plant, whose appearance we only know from coins, by the 1st century AD.