RABBITS & HARES ON ANCIENT COINS

Many ancient Greek cities adopted symbolic or mythical animals as badges or totems. Athens chose the owl due to its association with Athena. Corinth chose the Pegasus. For Cyzicus in Anatolia, it was the tuna fish. And so on.

Americans have a similar custom: the dolphin for Miami, the colt for Indianapolis, the bear for Chicago. Several cities in “Magna Graecia” (the region of southern Italy and Sicily settled by Greek colonists beginning in the eighth century BCE) adopted the leaping hare as a distinctive symbol on their classical-era coinage.

The story begins with Anaxilas, son of Cretines. In 494 BCE he seized power at Rhegium (or Rhegion, known today as Reggio Calabria at the tip of the boot of Italy) and soon extended his rule to Sicily. Anaxilas is credited with importing Greek hares to Sicily for the aristocratic sport of hunting. A leaping hare appears on his small silver litra at Rhegium as early as 480 BCE.

When his mule-chariot (biga) team won in the Olympic games, he placed that image on his coins. Coinage is conservative, and this basic design – mule chariot obverse, leaping hare reverse – was continued for generations.

Neighboring cities that allied with Rhegium or came under its control soon adopted the leaping hare as a symbol, notably Messana. Early coinage of Messana closely copied Rhegium’s design, changing only the “ethnic” (the inscription giving the name of the city). About 420 BCE, Messana issued a magnificent silver tetradrachm depicting the nature god Pan, seated on a rock playing with a leaping hare[1]. Another tetradrachm from this period shows the hare leaping over a head of Pan.

To read the complete article, see:
Bunny Money: Rabbits and Hares on Ancient Coins (www.coinweek.com/ancient-coins/bunny-money-rabbits-hares-ancient-coins/)

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