ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 500 B.C.

The underside is engraved with the god Hermes, depicted nude, holding in one hand a horned animal head by the poll, either a bovine or caprid, and his kerykeion in the other. Although the kerykeion is held in his lowered left hand, its shaft incorrectly passes behind him, a convention also occasionally employed by die-cutters in the Archaic period so as to not disturb the image of the god (see for example a silver stater depicting Poseidon wielding his trident, from Poseidonia, pl. 650 in C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins). The device is enclosed within a hatched border.