This Ancient Coin Has Been Mounted in a Modern 18 Karat Gold Rin
Lucania is an ancient mountainous region in southern Italy, corresponding to most of the modern region of Basilicata, colonized in the seventh century by Greeks who were later subjugated by the warlike Lucani in the fifth century. Recent discoveries of elaborately painted graves at Paestum, a city taken by the Lucanians about 400, suggest that, by the 4th century B.C., the tribe had developed a culture of great vitality and distinction. Although they allied with Rome in 298, the Lucanians opposed and were defeated by that power in the Pyrrhic War (280–275), the Second Punic War (218–201), and the Social War (90–88). Repeated devastations of the area in these conflicts brought about its decline.

The obverse of this coin displays a youth with a fillet tied around his head. This mysterious man is identified as the god Apollo by his divine attribute on the reverse: a lyre. Apollo was the most widely revered and influential of all the gods. Apollo, god of divine distance, who sent or threatened from afar; the god who made men aware of their own guilt and purified them of it; who presided over religious law and the constitutions of cities; who communicated to man through prophets and oracles his knowledge of the future and the will of his father, Zeus. His portrait is surely fitting to have on the coin of a Greek colony. Although cities rise and fall and great empires soon dissolve, the achievements of antiquity will always be remembered. This coin is a testament to an era, a city, and its people. Today, it is no relic locked behind a glass case; but a glorious ring set in gold. When placed on our fingers, the glories of old are rekindled and the past comes alive again in the present.