I don't know enough about the coins of the Bosporos so these two came from an unidentified box at today's show to force me to study up. I regret one (should have seen its problem) but like the other. These coins are dated by the local calendar which converts to AD by subtracting 297 from the Greek numeral on the reverse. The first (the one I like) appears to be king Thothorses / Diocletian year 593 or 296 AD. The centering allows reading the somewhat wild Greek legends. The other is (I think???) Rhadamsades / Licinius year 611 (314 AD). The off center obverse shows the word king clearly but loses most of the king's name. I would prefer the opposite. Given the year is easy to find, how is it we are to tell this is Licinius rather than Constantine? Bosporan kings also overlap dates but we have a clue from the legend. Is the club or monogram significant here?
there is a book on this coinage by David Macdonald that I enjoyed and it is not as daunting as the title sounds- An Introduction to the History and Coinage of the Kingdom of the Bosporus: Including the Coinage of Panticapaeum (with Apollonia and Myrmecium), Phanagoria, Gorgippia, Sindicus Limen Or the Sindoi, Nymphaeum, Theodosia and the Kings of the Cimmerian Bosporus
I know very little about this coinage - I just ordered the book, thank you @Victor_Clark . I like both of your acquisitions very much Doug. They have great detail for the types - the lettering is particularly good on both. I would have snatched those up as well. I do have this one "stater" of Thothorses which is difficult to photograph for its glossiness. Someone who knows more about these coins that I do (although I forget who it was) told me the alloy contained a significant amount of lead, giving them a unique fabric. Bosporan Kingdom, Tiberius Julius Thothorses, c. AD 278-308/9 AE Stater, 20mm, 7.6g, 12h; Uncertain mint (Panticapaeum?), AD 290. Obv.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΘΟΘΩΡΣΟΥ; Diademed, draped bust of king right. Rev.: Laureate head of Diocletian right, tamga in right field // ΖΠΦ (587 = 290 AD). Reference: cf. Anokhin 735, Mionnet 2, 160ff.
Heh - I'm chuckling at the description of the bust as "rude" rather than "crude." What is the line between highly stylized and rude?
there really is no way to tell who is depicted and MacDonald avoids speculating by describing the figure on the reverse simply as "bust of emperor"
Yeah, well, look at the size of the middle finger he's displaying on the right. Looks pretty rude to me.
I only have 4 coins from these guys/ here is one example.... EL Stater 7.77g./ 19mm. dated BIO (211AD) King Rheskuporis II 211-26AD on obverse Emperor Caracalla on reverse
This was an anonymous buy several months ago. I think he is Suaromates I, King of the Bosporus. Worn and definitely conveying the nature of these types of coins. Kind of crude or rude or however. I think it was @TIF who first attributed it for me?
I didn't know that these depicted Roman emperors as well. I've been waiting for an in with these... looks like I've got it!
Here is a Kingdom of the Bosporus coin of Rheskuporis V (AD 314/5 - c. 342) [Some authors number him "VI"]: Much of his name is on the flan. [PHC]KOVΠOPIS The reverse date is ΓK X which is 623 which is AD 326/7. Doug's second coin lead him to ask I guess he does not think the portrait is a good likeness! Fortunately that problem is solved when the coin has this date--too late for Licinius whose reign ended in 324. This reverse is of Constantine. Sear Greek Imperial 5506v. MacDonald 682/8. Stancomb 1037. Usually we think of Roman provincial coins ending c. 276 (There are a few under Aurelian and a very few under Tacitus) except in Alexandria, Egypt, where they ended shortly after the Caesars of the first tetrarchy were promoted, that is, Alexandrian provincial coinage stopped c. 295-6. But if we cast our net wider, all the way up to the top of the Black Sea, we find these "Kingdom of the Bosporus" issues which continued to 338 or 339 and are common under Constantine. I'd like to see your pieces from the Kingdom of the Bosporus.
