Lucania, Metapontion. Silver nomos (stater), c. 330-300 BC

Lucania, Metapontion. Silver nomos (stater), c. 330-300 BC; 7.38 g, 20 mm, die axis 6 h. Obverse: wreathed head of Demeter left, her hair bound with three barley-ears; single drop-earring and pearl necklace visible. Reverse: upright barley ear with broad central grain and spreading awns; curved leaf and small griffin in the left field; the ethnic META split by the stalk (Μ to left, Τ-Α to right). Johnston “Demeter/Barley-Ear” series C, nos. 9-11; HN Italy 1555. Bright silvery surfaces with scattered light cabinet marks; head of the goddess bold, reverse legend clear.

Metapontion’s staters invariably pair Demeter (or her daughter Persephone) with the city’s hallmark barley ear, proclaiming the fertility of the Ionic Gulf plain that made the polis a major grain exporter throughout the Classical and early Hellenistic periods. The weight of c. 7.3-7.8 g reflects the reduced Attic standard adopted after 350 BC, when a long economic downturn led South-Italian mints to lighten their silver currency yet continue the prestigious iconography that had advertised Metapontion’s agrarian wealth for more than two centuries.