TARENTUM SILVER DIDRACHM – ISSUE OF MAGISTRATE PHILISCUS WITH TRIPOD SYMBOL EX SALTON -SCHLESSINGER FPL 17 – VF NGC GRADED GREEK CALABRIA COIN (Inv. 18493)

$750.00

18493. CALABRIA. TARENTUM. Ca. 281–240 BC.
Silver Didrachm (Nomos), 6.36 g, 21 mm. Issue of magistrate Philiscus.
Obv. Youthful rider right, crowning his horse, ΦΙΛICKOC below. Rev. TAPAΣ, dolphin rider left, holding cantharus, tripod below.
HGC 1, 891; Vlasto 888; HN Italy 1036.
Ex Salton Collection = Mark M. Salton–Schlesinger FPL 17 (undated, ca. 1952), lot 49 (not illustrated, but almost certainly this coin), Vilmar Numismatics FPL V (Summer/Fall 2023), no. 2.
NGC graded VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 3/5, “graffito” (letter A on reverse) noted, dark gray cabinet patina.

The reverse type of Tarentum’s coinage has been variously described as representing Taras, the son of Poseidon and eponymous founder of Tarentum, or Phalanthus, the semi–legendary leader of the group of Spartan colonists that set out to settle at Tarentum in ca. 708 BC. The colonists had been instructed by the Delphic Oracle to establish a new city in southern Italy, but Phalanthus was shipwrecked on the way. Not wishing his oracle’s prophecy to be shown as false, the god Apollo sent a dolphin to save Phalanthus from drowning and to lead the colonists to the site of the new settlement.