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For now this is the oldest coin I've got...an update
MSD61
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The oldest coin in my collection
This is an silver didrachm from the Spartan colony of Calabria (Tarentum). The date of this coin is 272-235 B.C. Tarentum was a colony settled by a group of Spartans on the heel of the Italian peninsula. These men, called Partheniae, were the illegitimate sons of Spartan women, born during a time when the Spartans were off at war with Messenia. These men, who had been deprived of their rights as citizens, were forced out by the free citizens. Their leader was Phalanthus, who went on the advice of the oracle at Delphi. A famous son of Tarentum was the 4th century mathematician Archytus, a friend of Plato, whose solution to the problem of doubling a cube is a construction in three dimensions. The Tarentines sent several offerings to Delphi, after winning battles against the Messapians and the Peucetii, non-Greek peoples whose territories bordered theirs in Southern Italy. In a prominent place along the first stretch of Delphi's Sacred Way, the people of Tarentum erected a sculptural group of bronze horses and captive women, of which only the bases remain.
Legend says that the original founder of the city, Taras, was saved from shipwreck by a dolphin who had been sent by Taras’ father Poseidon. Hence Tarentine coinage pictures many different images of Taras riding a dolphin’s back. Tarentum was situated in rich pasture lands and became noteworthy for the breeding of horses. These silver coins were struck using a die and hammer and there are over 500 different strikes.
This is an silver didrachm from the Spartan colony of Calabria (Tarentum). The date of this coin is 272-235 B.C. Tarentum was a colony settled by a group of Spartans on the heel of the Italian peninsula. These men, called Partheniae, were the illegitimate sons of Spartan women, born during a time when the Spartans were off at war with Messenia. These men, who had been deprived of their rights as citizens, were forced out by the free citizens. Their leader was Phalanthus, who went on the advice of the oracle at Delphi. A famous son of Tarentum was the 4th century mathematician Archytus, a friend of Plato, whose solution to the problem of doubling a cube is a construction in three dimensions. The Tarentines sent several offerings to Delphi, after winning battles against the Messapians and the Peucetii, non-Greek peoples whose territories bordered theirs in Southern Italy. In a prominent place along the first stretch of Delphi's Sacred Way, the people of Tarentum erected a sculptural group of bronze horses and captive women, of which only the bases remain.
Legend says that the original founder of the city, Taras, was saved from shipwreck by a dolphin who had been sent by Taras’ father Poseidon. Hence Tarentine coinage pictures many different images of Taras riding a dolphin’s back. Tarentum was situated in rich pasture lands and became noteworthy for the breeding of horses. These silver coins were struck using a die and hammer and there are over 500 different strikes.
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That is so cool!!!
I could read stories like that all night.
I've only had two coins older than that. An Alexander the Great tetradrachm (posthumous), and a Corinthian stater with the pegasus on it.
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