Greek Coins
Islands off Epirus. Corcyra
Stater circa 500-450, AR 11.20 g. Cow standing r., looking back at suckling calf crouching l. below. Rev. Bipartite incuse rectangle with two star-like patterns. BMC pl. 21, 1. SNG Delepierre 1194. SNG Hart 631.
Very rare and in exceptional condition for this difficult issue. Well struck
on sound metal, light old cabinet tone and extremely fine Privately purchased from Spink in 1991.

In his introduction to Corcyra for the seventh volume of the BMC Greek series, Percy Gardner shared his frustrations with the ordering the earliest coinage of this island, noting that ”...it is very difficult to range it in chronological sequence, because the types persist unchanged amid external wars and internal revolutions. The varying relations of Corcyra with the mother city Corinth, as well as the violent political quarrels of the aristocratic and democratic factions described by Thucydides, produces no changes in the issues of Corcyrean coins...”.

The basic types of Corcyra – a cow suckling her calf and a geometric pattern of uncertain significance – were enduring: they did not change until the era of Macedonian intervention, and they were adopted at the Corcyrean colonies of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium. They did, however, evolve sufficiently to permit a rough order to be established based solely upon the considerations of style and fabric. Within that sequence the present stater ranks among the earliest produced on Corcyra.

The use of the cow-suckling-calf design at Corcyra may have been inspired by the Euboeans who Plutarch says first settled Corcyra. If Plutarch’s claim may be trusted, then surely it is no coincidence that Corcyra’s connection to the island of Euboea – literally ”a land rich in cows” – resulted in the cow and calf being adopted as the badge for Corcyra. Another source of inspiration may have been Macedon, where this design was used on some Archaic issues (see Svoronos pl. XVIII).

A satisfying explanation of the geometric designs in the two incuse punches that form the reverse type, however, still eludes us. Of one thing we may be sure: this pattern, used for centuries at three important mints of the region, had meaning that would have been understood in its day. It is often suggested that the punches bear a stellar or a floral arrangement. Others have proposed that it is symbolic of Apollo or the Dioscouri, or that it represents some aspect of the garden of Alkinöos described by Homer or the sacred precinct dedicated to Zeus and Alkinöos that was described by Thucydides.