Major mints: Metapontum, Poseidona (Paestum), Thurium, Velia.

Lucania comprises a portion of southern Italy, with part of its coast on the instep of the Italian boot, and the remainder on the Tyrrhenean Sea. Its population consisted of the native, Samnite-derived, Lucanii of the interior, and the Greek colonies of the coast.

The Greek cities were mostly founded as colonies, mainly of Achaeans, in the eighth and seventh century BC. Other cities were founded as outposts of Sybaris, the city in Bruttium infamous for its luxurious living, hence Sybaritic is the natural opposite of Spartan. Metapontum and Poseidonia are two such foundations.

Metapontum was founded by Achaeans, pushed by the Sybarites, as a forward defense against Taras. The founder of the city, named Leukippos, but not the legendary Greek of that name, appeared frequently on the coinage, along with the grain-ear emblematic of the agricultural prosperity of the city. Poseidonia, on the west coast of Italy, was built on a site inhabited since the Palaeolithic, and was very prosperous until the :Lucanians captured it, renaming it Paestum. Eventually the Romans established a colony there, and most of the surviving coins are from this Roman colony. The site of Paestum contains the ruins of two magnificent fifth-century BC temples. Thurium (Thurii) was the new site of the third incarnation of Sybaris, built near the ruins of the earlier city, in 444 BC. It used as its coin-type a modernized version of the Sybarite bull. Velia, a small and late foundation, was noted for a famous school of philosophy (the Elean) which flourished there in the early fifth century.