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Colchian Tetri II Type Hemidrachm
| Issuer | Dioskourias |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 200 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.6 g |
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| Obverse description | Head of a male figure facing right, depicted in a schematic, archaic local style characteristic of Colchian coinage. The portrait displays simplified facial features with a prominent nose and lips, rendered in low relief. The hair falls in a long, straight mass to the nape of the neck. The field is plain, with no legend or inscription present. The overall treatment reflects the influence of Achaemenid Persian artistic traditions on the coinage of the Black Sea region. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Dioskourias, the Greek colony at the eastern end of the Black Sea — modern Sukhumi in Abkhazia — occupied one of the most remote outposts of the Hellenic commercial world. The city sat at the terminus of overland trade routes descending from the Caucasus, and its coinage circulated primarily as a medium for that highland commerce rather than within any Mediterranean exchange network. Strabo claimed the city's market drew traders speaking no fewer than three hundred languages, a figure almost certainly exaggerated but indicative of its genuine polyglot character.
The "Colchian Tetri" designation is a modern numismatic convention, not an ancient one.