Neapolis in Campania, 270-240 BC., Æ Litra, HNI 589 var.

Neapolis in Campania, 270-240 BC.,
Æ litra (reduced) (20-21 mm / 5,57 g),
Obv.: ΝΕΩΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ , laureate head of Apollo facing l., herm behind.
Rev.: man-headed bull standing right, head facing, being crowned by Nike who flies above, IΣ below, {TAX..} -monogram in ex.
Rutter, Historia Numorum Italy (HNI) 589 var. .

The man-headed bull on the reverses is thought to be the River-god Acheloös, the father of the Sirens, whose cultus was wide-spread throughout the Greek world.
The man-headed bull, crowned on the later coins by a winged Nike, clearly an agonistic type, is characteristic of many Campanian coins, and may have been generally understood as symbolical of Acheloös.
All the later coins of Neapolis, whether of silver or bronze, have symbols or letters in the field. Among the latter IΣ is extremely common, and curiously enough not peculiar to coins of Neapolis, for it likewise occurs on contemporary coins of Aesernia, Cales, Compulteria, Suessa, and Teanum.