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3 Argyroi - Ezana
| Issuer | Kingdom of Aksum |
|---|---|
| Year | 345-360 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 3 Argyroi |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Draped bust of King Ezana facing right, closely paralleling the obverse type, with the same stylized rendering of facial features and linear drapery. A pendant or earring is visible before the face, and the hair is adorned with plant sprigs in the Aksumite royal tradition. Greek legends appear to the left and right of the bust within the inner circle. The composition is framed by a plain inner border and a beaded outer border, consistent with the hammered silver coinage of the Aksumite kingdom under Ezana. |
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| Additional information |
Ezana is the Aksumite king who converted the kingdom to Christianity — making Aksum one of the earliest states to adopt the faith officially, roughly contemporary with Constantine's Rome. His silver issues straddle that conversion, and scholars use the iconographic shift on his coinage as one of the primary tools for dating the transition. This particular denomination belongs to a series struck in remarkably small module for the weight, a deliberate Aksumite convention that distinguished their silver from the broader Hellenistic metrological tradition they otherwise borrowed from.