Coin of Skodra — Zeus and an Illyrian ship

Description

Bronze civic coinage of Skodra, today Shkodër in Albania, with the legend ΣΚΟΔΡΙΝΩΝ — **“of the Skodrans”**, naming the civic community that issued it. The obverse shows the **head of Zeus** facing right, wreathed with oak; the reverse shows **a galley, an oared ship**.

Skodra was an important political centre of the Illyrian state. The IRIS catalogue dates this type (Brunšmid 1898, nos. 6–15) to **168–30 BC**, that is, after the Roman conquest of the Illyrian kingdom; this is the range for the type, not the year in which the specimen shown was struck. The diameter of this type is not catalogued and is estimated here from the weight.

Coins of Skodra also turn up at sites in Montenegro. At the cemetery of Gostilj (Vele ledine), of 17 bronze coins three were securely identified as **coins of Skodra**, six of the Illyrian king Gentius and four of Dyrrhachium; on the evidence of these coins the whole cemetery is dated to the 2nd century BC. [1]

The 3D model was made after photographs of a specimen of this type: obverse and reverse were modelled separately, in full relief, and joined into a two-sided coin at true size (diameter from the catalogue, thickness derived from the weight). The model is a faithful three-dimensional rendering of the type, not a measured survey of the specimen; the relief height is emphasised for legibility. For 3D printing, obverse and reverse were prepared as separate models.

The photographs of originals in the gallery come from public collections, under the licence each collection states; source and link are in the notes. [2]