Engraved on the underside is a dove in flight, with its well-detailed wings spread and the tail splayed. For the motif compare the coins of Sikyon (see no. 15 in J.A.W. Warren, “Sikyon: a Case-Study in the Adoption of Coinage by a Polis in the Fifth Century BC,” The Numismatic Chronicle 196). As the dove was sacred to Aphrodite, its employment on the coins of Sikyon may have been inspired by that fact that the goddess had a cult center there.
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Masterpieces in Miniature: Ancient Engraved Gems formerly in the G. Sangiorgi Collection Part III
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