The obverse depicts the god Helios facing slightly right. The reverse shows a blossoming rose, above this POΔION is inscribed, with a bunch of grapes in the field to the...
The obverse depicts the god Helios facing slightly right. The reverse shows a blossoming rose, above this POΔION is inscribed, with a bunch of grapes in the field to the left.
Roma numismatics auction, London, 31 March 2012, lot 301
Literature
Rhodes was a major commercial and cultural centre within the ancient
Greek world, and was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World. This colossal statue depicted the sun god
Helios and was erected in the 3rd century BC shortly after this coin was minted. The Colossus was
destroyed only fifty years later by a devastating earthquake in 226 BC. This coin provides an idea of how the faces of one of antiquity's greatest lost
masterpieces may have looked.