Taras (Calabria), Didrachm (silver coin replica) 380 - 345 BC.
OBV: Naked boy seated on horse stg. l. which he crowns with his right hand, ΠΣ retrograde below.
R: Taras seated l. on dolphin, holding a pot, ΠΣ and ΤΑΡΑΣ beneath.

Founded in the 8th Century BC, Tarentum was Sparta's only colony. Endowed with a splendid harbor and rich hinterland, Tarentum became the most important Greek city in Southern Italy during the 5th and 4th centuries. An ancient tradition tells how the Taras, the founder of the first settlement on the site later to become known as Tarentum, was miraculously saved from shipwreck by the intervention of his father Poseidon who sent a dolphin on whose back he was carried to shore.