Greek Coin Stater
Inv. No.: c011
Provenance: Corinth
Date: c. 350 B.C.
Obv.: Pegasus.
Rev.: Athena, wearing Corinthian helmet.
Pegasus had a special connection with Corinth: by stamping his hoof on the rock of Akrokorinthos he opened up the spring of Peirene. Thus Pegasus was always the obverse type for Corinthian silver coins, which were consequently nicknamed throughout Greece. The tiny Q-shaped letter beneath the horse, the initial letter of Corinth, persisted long after it had passed from general usage and been supplanted in ordinary Greek writing by the letter K.
Athena was always the reverse type for the Corinthian stater, or standard coin, reckoned as a three-drachma piece. The drachma and its fractions were given other types. While Corinthian coins types thus changed relatively little, the handling of detail and the general execution of the dies show a constant advance in style. This may be seen, for example, in the engraving of the horse’s wings or in the treatment of Athena’s eye: the earliest coins showed the eye facing incongruously to the front; later ones depicted it more naturalistically, in keeping with the remainder of the profile. The reason probably lies in the fact that Corinth exported mainly westwards: Italians and Sicilians had a keener eye for beauty than Egyptians or Phoenicians. There is almost certainly the initial of a moneyer.
Corinth drew its silver supplies from "barbarian" tribes, to whom the drachma meant nothing. The Corinthians, therefore, when settling on their standard, had no need to consider the implications it might carry for those who had mined the silver, but simply fixed their price to the Greek market as sellers.
- Comparanda:
R 1069b.