Silver stater of King Monounios

Description

Monounios is the first Illyrian king to strike coins in his own name. He struck them at Dyrrhachion, today’s Durrës, on the model of the civic coinage: on the obverse a cow suckles her calf, on the reverse a double square ornament with the legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΟΝΟΥΝΙΟΥ — “of King Monounios”.

In this collection it stands as a forerunner of Ardiaean coinage: it is older than, and north of, the state of Agron and Teuta. The specimen is excellently preserved, making this the most legible model of the series.

The 3D model was made from two photographs of the specimen (obverse and reverse) in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The relief height was derived from the shading in the photograph, so the model is a faithful drawing in three dimensions, not a measured survey of the coin. The photograph is applied to the model as its colour. For 3D printing, obverse and reverse were prepared as separate flat-backed plaques, enlarged 3:1, at true and at emphasised relief height.