Corinthia, Corinth. Circa 375-300 BC. Stater

Corinthia, Corinth. Circa 375-300 BC. Stater (Silver, 23 mm, 8.48 g, 4h). Pegasos flying left; below, Ϙ. Rev. Head of Athena left, wearing Corinthian helmet; A below chin, Λ below neck, Silenos mask behind neck guard. BCD Corinth 119 same dies; Calciati 408; Ravel 1046. A well-attributed Corinthian stater from the city’s prolific fourth-century silver coinage, struck at a time when Corinth remained one of the principal commercial and maritime powers of mainland Greece. The obverse Pegasos and the archaic koppa below are the defining badges of Corinthian coinage, the koppa serving as the city mark and distinguishing the issue from the many Pegasos staters struck by Corinthian colonies and related mints across the Greek world. The reverse Athena continues the standard Corinthian type, but the control letters and Silenos mask place the coin within a specific die-linked emission. The Silenos mask is a particularly appealing symbol, adding a Dionysiac element to a coinage otherwise dominated by the civic pairing of Pegasos and Athena. Such symbols likely functioned as issue marks, but they also reflect the rich visual vocabulary available to Corinthian engravers in the later classical period.