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| Issuer | Mint of Scepsis (Conventus of Adramyteum) |
|---|---|
| Year | 193-211 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Aphrodite standing facing with head turned to the left, draped in a long chiton and himation, holding a small Nike figure in her extended right hand and a long transverse sceptre in her left. The goddess is rendered in the round with careful attention to drapery folds. The Greek civic legend ϹΚΗΨΙΩΝ ΔΑΡ is distributed in the field around the central figure, referencing the issuing city of Scepsis. A dotted border frames the composition around the rim. |
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| Additional information |
Scepsis was a minor Troad city with an outsized intellectual reputation — ancient sources credit it as the location where Aristotle's library was hidden and eventually rediscovered, buried to protect it from Attalid book-collectors. Under Septimius Severus, the city struck a modest civic bronze coinage, almost certainly authorized locally rather than imperially directed, as was typical practice for small conventus mints operating under the jurisdiction of Adramyteum.
The conventus system meant Scepsis answered administratively to Adramyteum for judicial and fiscal purposes, yet retained the right to strike its own civic issues — a distinction that mattered enormously to Greek cities jealous of their autonomous traditions.