This coin represents another example of how quickly the invention of the coin spread through the whole Greek world.

Sybaris was the most famous of all Greek cities in Lower Italy and was regarded as a town of proverbial wealth and luxury, until, in 510 BC, shortly after this coin was struck, it was destroyed in the struggle against rising Croton. The Greek cities in Lower Italy completely redesigned the appearance of the Greek silver coin:
a broad, thin pellet was chosen, which could only be fixed in place technically by the incuse picture on the reverse. The bull stands for the god Poseidon, whose cult Sybaris transferred to its new foundation Poseidonia (later Paestum, south of Naples).
The didrachmon (two drachmas) was called nomos in Lower Italy, because its value was fixed by law and not simply by the silver content.