Catalog
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| Issuer | Amastris (Bithynia and Pontus) |
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| Year | 161-169 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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| Obverse description | Bare head of Lucius Verus facing right, with characteristically curly hair rendered in a naturalistic provincial style. The portrait is boldly modelled in high relief, displaying the emperor's distinctive thick beard and tightly curled coiffure. The Greek legend ΚΑΙ ΛΟΥΚΙϹ(sic) ΟΥ runs around the periphery of the flan, partially legible on this example. The die workmanship is typical of the civic bronze coinage issued by Amastris under the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΚΑΙ ΛΟΥΚΙϹ(sic) ΟΥ |
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| Additional information |
Amastris was a coastal Pontic city with a complicated colonial identity — founded by a niece of Darius III and later absorbed into Bithynia, it retained strong civic pride well into the imperial period. Provincial bronzes struck there under Marcus Aurelius fall within the early co-regency years alongside Lucius Verus, when eastern mints were unusually active responding to the Parthian war's administrative demands.
The ethnic ΑΜΑϹΤΡΙΑΝΩΝ marks this firmly as a civic issue rather than a koinon piece.