Coinage of Cales

Litra (?)
First side of the image: Laureate head of Apollo at left; spearhead behind
Second side of the image: Man-headed bull moving to the right; lyre at top.
Æ 3rd century BC.; ref.: Sambon 922, SNG ANS 175
Litra (?)
First side of the image: Head of Minerva with Corinthian helmet
Second side of the image: CALENO; standing rooster, star behind.
Æ 3rd century BC.

The coinage of Cales concerns coins minted in Cales, a city in Campania, the most important urban center of the ancient Italic population of the Ausones. Cales was located on the Via Latina, halfway between the mountains of Samnium and the plains of Campania felix, a few kilometers north of Casilinum (present-day Capua) and just south of Teanum Sidicinum.

Καὶ ἡ ἐφεξῆς ἡ τῶν Καληνῶν καὶ αὕτη ἀξιόλογος, συνάπτουσα τῷ Κασιλίνῳ. [...] Πρὸς δὲ ταῖς ῥηθείσαις ἔτι καὶ αὗται Καμπαναὶ πόλεις εἰσιν ὧν ἐμνήσθημεν πρότερον, Κάλης τε καῖ Τέανον Σιδικῖνον.
Next comes the city of the Caleni, also important, very close to Casilinum [...]. In addition to those described, those mentioned earlier belong to Campania: Cales and Teanum Sidicinum [...].

—Strabo, Geography, V, 3, 9; V, 4, 11

The archaeological site is located in the municipality of Calvi Risorta, a short distance from the town.

The city minted coins in the period between 268 BC and the Second Punic War. The coins of Cales are included among those issued by colonies and allies of Rome, in an area centered around ancient Campania. After the Second Punic War, Cales, like most centers in Roman Italy, no longer minted its own coins and used Roman coinage centered on the denarius.

Traditionally numismatists treat Calenian coins as Greek coinage.

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