Morgantina Studies, Volume II: The Coins (Princeton Legacy Library)

This volume continues documenting the well-known excavations at Morgantina, a Greek town in central Sicily, in a presentation of the largest body of coins ever unearthed at an Italian site and published as a group. The excavations, conducted by Princeton University, The University of Illinois, and The University of Virginia between 1955 and 1981, produced nearly 10,000 identifiable coins--most of the them of Sicilian Greek and Roman issues, struck before the end of the first century B. C.. This numismatic evidence not only made possible the initial identification of the site as Morgantina, but has subsequently opened the way to reconstructing the history of early Roman Republican coinage and the bronze coinage of Greek Sicily. The catalogue presents a full list of the coins found at Morgantina through the 1981 season, with discussion of significant issues and illustrations of 679 specimens. A complete corpus and study of the coins struck at Morgantina is also included.