My downfall is Greek lettering and placing it to the ruler who issued the coin? I feel this is a beautiful bust of Apollo, with a well defined Tripod on the reverse... Can someone tell me who issued this item here?
You bet. I'm actually fairly new to ancients collecting, but I've had a few months under my belt locating the free resources available to aid in attributing coins. Even though the theme of 'Apollo'/'Tripod' is fairly common, this type seems to be somewhat rare from my own discoveries. There's not a whole lot of info about Bisanthe(Bizanthe) available. What is out there is a handful of references by ancient historians & a few other limited records -- Of which we know that most have been lost throughout the ages. Wikipedia has a small write-up on the ancient city, and THIS LINK shows a little info on some of the historical records of reference. Your coin looks to be in pretty nice shape. Cool specimen.
With your read, I was able to locate this ref: Still though no idea who this coin was minted under? https://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?search=+ΒΙΣΑΝ+-++ΘΗΝΩΝ&s=0&upcoming=0&results=100
That's a good question. I'm not sure if it's known. Autonomous, perhaps? LIST OF ODRYSIAN KINGS Your coin is similar to some that have been assigned as being minted under the rule of the Thracian king Adaios. Adaios (Adaeus) was a King of Thrace in the 3rd Century BC. Adaios is one of those almost ghost rulers for which there is no known epigraphic evidence beyond coinage so there is some uncertainty over the specifics of his rule. He may have been an Odrysian King of Thrace (rather than all of Thrace) or he may have been a Macedonian dynast. Per Head: "(Adiaos is) perhaps a dynast in Macedonia not mentioned in history. His coins appear to have been struck either at Heracleia Sintica or at the town of Scotussa (both in Eastern Macedon) on the road between Heracleia and Philippi". Recent thinking on this ruler from Gatzolis: "Our knowledge about Adaios is limited and based solely on coins (Archibald 1998, 311; Youroukova 1976, 29-31; Peter 1997, 236-49). According to the up to date data, five coin types are assigned to Adaios (Peter 1997, 236-38). Some scholars believe that he ruled at the end of the 4th c. BC, others in the period between 270/60 and 245/40 BC, and finally some others at the end of the 3rd c. BC. South-eastern (sic. Should be South-Western) Thrace is considered to be the territory of Adaios’ dominion, because most of his coins were found in this area." (Excavation finds included Abdera, Maroneia, Messembria-Zone) Excerpt from Head, Historia Numorum; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "COINS OF THRACIAN KINGS AND RULERS FROM WESTERN THRACE, EASTERN AND CENTRAL MACEDONIA (5th-3rdc. BC)", Gatzolis et.al, Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Thracology, Athens 2007, pp. 176-187.
It seems to be a civic issue. The -ΩN ending is the genitive (possessive) plural meaning "[coin] of the Bisantheans".
