The Greek coinages of Southern Italy and Sicily
N. K. Rutter · 1997
FOREWORDThe world of Greek numismatics is vast and varied, and the coinages of southern Italy and Sicily offer as good a point of entry as any to its riches. The two areas differed in their approaches to coining, and within each area there was great variety of development. These differences offer scope for exploring in some depth the many different aspects of numismatic study, whether technical, artistic, historical or bibliographical, and one of the aims of this book has been to take advantage of these opportunities. The coins, and the problems of interpreting them, are presented in their geographical and historical contexts.My work has been encouraged by a number of colleagues and friends, among whom Andrew Burnett and David Ridgway have read parts of the manuscript, Christof Boehringer the Sicilian chapters, and Ann Johnston, Ronald Knox and John Morcom the whole. I have benefitted immensely from their observations, and thank them all warmly for their time and patience.The arduous task of assembling illustrations was eased by the generosity of Donal Bateson at the Hunter Coin Cabinet, University of Glasgow, and Andrew Burnett and Ute Wartenberg of the Department of Coins and Medals in the British Museum. I owe a great debt too, to John Morcom, who allowed me to illustrate coins from his collection now published in sylloge form. I am grateful to Silvia Hunter, Leu Numismatics, Zurich, for providing a negative of the illustration of coin no.125, the first tetradrachm of Aetna, and to Bobby Cox for allowing me to select from the resources of the photographic archive formerly kept at Batsford. In the captions to the illustrations, 'BM' denotes a British Museum coin, 'H' a Glasgow coin, and 'M' a Morcom coin.The maps of southern Italy and Sicily were prepared by Ray Harris, of the Reprographics Unit in the Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh.