BRUTTIUM. Kaulonia. Circa 525-500 BC. Nomos (Silver, 30 mm, 8.00 g, 12 h). KAYΛ Apollo, nude, striding right, holding laurel branch in his upraised right hand and, on his outstretched left arm, small figure of a daimon running right, holding branch in each hand and with his head turned back to left; to right, stag standing right, head to left; all within cable border. Rev. Same type as the obverse, but anepigraphic and incuse, except for the daimon, branch and stag's antlers, which are in relief; all within rayed border. Gorini 3. HN Italy 2035. Noe, Caulonia, Group A, 22 (same dies). SNG ANS 150 (same dies). A beautiful and well struck piece. Light roughness on the obverse and with a thin edge crack, otherwise, good very fine.


Kaulonia was an Achaian apoikia founded on the eastern shore of Bruttium, a city that gained its wealth from timber exported from the nearby Calabrian Apennine for shipbuilding (Thuc. 7.25.2). The Archaic and Classical coinage of the city features its principal deity, Apollo, on the obverse, but the output came to an abrupt end after its capture and destruction by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 387 BC.