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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8119193, member: 128351&quot;]Sub-Saharan Africa in Antiquity is not well-known... There is an exception, the kingdom of Axum in today&#039;s Ethiopia. This African kingdom traded with Arabs and Greeks since the 1st c. AD but direct contacts with the classical world were scarce. It was initially influenced by South Arabian culture, began minting gold and silver coins with Greek legends in the late 3rd c., and in the 4th c. its king Ezanas (c.333 - c.356) converted to Christianity. The kingdom minted gold, silver and bronze coins until the beginning of the 7th c.</p><p>These coins are typical and do not look like contemporaneous late Roman, Byzantine or Persian coinages. Silver and bronze coins are extremely thin and at first sight look like the Western medieval deniers minted centuries later. Many of them are bimetallic : the cross on the reverse is gilt or inlaid with gold, even tiny bronze coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1413401[/ATTACH] </p><p>Axum, anonymous issue, c. 410-450 (time of King Noe). AR 15 mm, 0.54 g.</p><p>Obv.: CΛX ΛCΛ, king&#039;s bust draped, wearing headcloth, right, within double circle border.</p><p>Rev.: OTYOT ΛPECH TH XWPΛ, gilt cross within circle.</p><p><br /></p><p>The meaning of the obv. legend is obscure, some specialists think it meant &quot;King of the land of the Abyssinians&quot; much abbreviated. The rev. legend is Greek, with first word retrograde: τοῦτο ἀρέσῃ τῇ χώρᾳ, &quot;may this please the country&quot; (this = the Cross). At the mint, the rev. cross was systematically gilded inside. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another one, a bit later:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1413407[/ATTACH] </p><p>Axum, anonymous issue, c. 460-480 (time of King Ebana). AE 15 mm, 0.70 g.</p><p>Obv.: CΛX ΛCΛ, king&#039;s bust draped and crowned, wearing long cross, right.</p><p>Rev.: TOYTO ΛPECH TH XWPΛ, cross within circle, centre inlaid with gold.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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