I have no coins from the Black Sea region, but I have an insect coin, spirityoda: That's a cicada in the upper left area of the reverse!
cool thread SM! i have a few things that fit right in here.. Justinian I. A.D. 527-565. Pentanummium O: DN IVSTINIANS PP AV, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right; R: VIC-TOR, Emperor standing facing, head left. holding spear and globe. Cherson mint. SB 197, 18x15 mm, 3.0g
Nice writeup, @scottishmoney! One correction though-- those hemidrachms are from Chersonesos in Thrace, not the northern Black Sea area of the same name. From Reid Goldsborough's page about these hemidrachms: "These coins are sometimes described as being from Tauric Cherronesos or Tauric Chersonese, even by major auction houses, but this is a mistake. "Cherronesos" (also spelled "Cherronesus," "Chersonesos," "Chersonesus," and "Chersonese") is the Greek word for "peninsula," and there were no fewer than 28 geographical areas referred to in the ancient sources as "Cherronesos." Tauric Cherronesos, which is present-day Crimea, Ukraine, is the peninsula in the northern Black Sea on which the city of Pantikapaion/Panticapaeum was situated. Thracian Cherronesos, which today is called the Gallipoli peninsula and is part of Turkey, is the peninsula in the northeast Aegean Sea on which the cities of Kardia/Cardia and Lysimachia were situated. The spellings seen most commonly are "Cherronesos," "Chersonesos," and "Chersonese.""
It's described in the references as a cicada, not a bee: As to the condition, I've never seen a finer one, which is why I bid very strongly for it.