The front (obverse) of this coin depicts the hero Hercules, facing right, wearing his signature lion skin cloak tied around his neck. The back (reverse) shows a bow in case and a club.<\/p>\n
Herakles was the consummate hero. Temples across Greece and South Italy were dedicated to him, the son of Zeus, and Romans, who knew him as Hercules, celebrated him as a role model. With brute force, determination, and just enough cleverness, Herakles completed his famous Twelve Labors to become immortal. Herakles is readily identifiable by his knobby club and lion\u2019s skin. The latter refers to his First Labor, in which he killed a magical beast who was ravaging the town of Nemea. The lion\u2019s invincible hide made him immune to weapons, so Herakles strangled him and took his pelt.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Diam.: 1.7 cm (11\/16 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":null,"height":null,"diameter":1,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Bronze","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Gift of William F. Dunham","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":null,"exhibition_history":null,"provenance_text":"William F. Dunham (1857-1936), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1920.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":941,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":8.2583,"color":{"h":42,"l":44,"s":0,"percentage":2.1774771145280782,"population":7783},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Coin","artwork_type_id":26,"department_title":"Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium","department_id":"PC-4","artist_id":2601,"artist_title":"Ancient Greek","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[2601],"artist_titles":["Ancient Greek"],"category_ids":["PC-4"],"category_titles":["Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium"],"term_titles":["coin","bronze","greek","Heracles","copper alloy","nonferrous metal","metal","inorganic material","ancient art","ancient"],"style_id":"TM-4408","style_title":"greek","alt_style_ids":["TM-8542"],"style_ids":["TM-4408","TM-8542"],"style_titles":["greek","ancient"],"classification_id":"TM-260","classification_title":"coin","alt_classification_ids":["TM-1392"],"classification_ids":["TM-260","TM-1392"],"classification_titles":["coin","ancient art"],"subject_id":"TM-12705","alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":["TM-12705"],"subject_titles":["Heracles"],"material_id":"TM-2430","alt_material_ids":["TM-2694","TM-2683","TM-2568","TM-2600"],"material_ids":["TM-2430","TM-2694","TM-2683","TM-2568","TM-2600"],"material_titles":["bronze","copper alloy","nonferrous metal","metal","inorganic material"],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"600b9960-487c-e710-0347-e3c6cfeb98b3","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1920.2822"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Coin Depicting the Hero Herakles"],"weight":1,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2025-03-03T12:07:03-06:00","updated_at":"2026-09-24T14:15:43-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-24T15:23:44-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.16"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}