Unknown Maker, Greek

Featured on this coin is the famous silphium plant, which grew almost exclusively in Cyrene. In his Natural History, the Roman author Pliny described the plant as being “greatly in vogue for medicinal as well as other purposes, being sold at the same rate as silver.” These other purposes may have included birth control for women and feed for cattle. Pliny later wrote that the last stalk of the plant on the island was “sent as a curiosity to the Emperor Nero.” The plant became extinct soon after, and survives today only in ancient writing and imagery.