Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Æ38 - Maximinus ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ ΕΤ ϹΞ (?) ΟΜ (retrograde) ΑΜΙϹΗΝΩΝ ΝΕΙΚΑΕΩΝ
| Issuer | Amisus (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 235-236 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Two goddesses standing facing one another in the field: at left, Athena stands facing with head turned to the right, holding an upright spear in her right hand and resting her left hand upon a large round shield set on the ground; at right, Demeter stands facing with head turned to the left, holding ears of grain in her right hand and a long sceptre in her left. The composition reflects the civic and religious significance of Amisus, with the Greek legend distributed around the periphery and incorporating the local era date and a partially retrograde element. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ ΕΤ ϹΞΗ(?) ΟΜ (retrograde) ΑΜΙϹΗΝΩΝ ΝΕΙΚΑΕΩΝ |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Amisus held the title of "free city" under Roman administration — a status that granted it the right to mint its own bronze coinage, a privilege jealously maintained from the Hellenistic period onward. The civic year notation, likely ϹΞ (year 260) in the local Amisene era, anchors this piece to the opening of Maximinus Thrax's reign, a soldier-emperor who never set foot in Rome and whose legitimacy depended heavily on provincial loyalty demonstrated through exactly this kind of locally-struck honorific coinage.
The retrograde OM retrograde element in the legend remains a matter of scholarly dispute — whether a die-cutter's error or an abbreviated title imperfectly understood by a local engraver working from a distant exemplar.