Pegsus and Swastika, Silver Stater of Corinth c. 550-500 BC
Coin shows Pegasos (Pegasus), with curved wing, flying to left, a koppa below. On the reverse, an incuse in the form of a swastika.
Very rare. This is one of the finest of all archaic Corinthian staters known. Instead of walking, as on the earliest examples of this type, Pegasos is clearly flying here since all his hooves are diagonal and not flat on the ground. The swastika patterned incuse on the reverse is actually a very ancient solar symbol, found in many parts of the world, and has no political meaning.
The ancient city of Corinth was founded in the 10th century BC on the remnants of a Neolithic settlement. The town was extremely well situated on the isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus with the mainland of Greece. This location gave Corinth the possibility to control all roads connecting the two parts of Greece. As a result, Corinth soon developed into one of the most important trade centers of the ancient world.
Thanks to this vivid trade, Corinth belonged to the first western towns to take up coinage, supposedly around the middle of the 6th century BC. The motif on the coins of Corinth was Pegasus, the legendary winged horse – legend had it that Pegasus, scratching with his hoof on the rock Acrocorinthus, had released the spring of Peirene, the fountain that supplies Corinth with fresh water. The reverse of the early Corinthian coins showed a simple square, the so-called “quadratum incusum.” Soon however, the square was transformed into a swastika, as can be seen on this coin.