We present an example of reading and interpreting coin typologies according to the criteria of the Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae Classicae et Mediae Aetatis (LIN) and thanks to the support of the Digital Iconographic Atlas of Numismatics in Antiquity (DIANA), numismatic tools which both focus their attention on the iconographic aspects of coins. We have chosen to analyze the icon of the shell which, among all the aquatic – both marine and freshwater – creatures, is well attested on coins from the Greek period in the area of the Mediterranean, both as a main type and as a secondary element. Besides retrieving objective data about the details of its iconographic representation and distribution through space and time, we also try to recover, wherever possible, a symbolic significance of this coin type.