Catalog
Denarius Circle and X, Circle and X
| Issuer | Taman, Goths from |
|---|---|
| Year | 300-350 |
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| Currency | Denarius (late 3rd/early 4th centuries) |
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| Obverse description | Barbarized effigy of a Roman emperor rendered in a highly stylized rosette form composed entirely of dots, with a single dot at the center. Radiating elements terminating in dots extend behind, above, and below the head, evoking a degenerate laureate or radiate crown. Two dots appear in the right field before the face, which is oriented to the right. The design reflects a provincial imitative tradition in which the imperial portrait has been reduced to an abstract dotted pattern by craftsmen unfamiliar with classical die-cutting conventions. |
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| Mintage | ND (300-350) |
| Additional information |
The Gothic settlements in the Taman Peninsula — the Cimmerian Bosporus region between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov — produced a sparse and poorly understood coinage during the fourth century, likely tied to Gothic groups who had absorbed Bosporan monetary practices after the kingdom's effective collapse. These pieces circulated in a zone where Roman, Bosporan, and steppe economies intersected uneasily.
The Kleshchinov corpus remains the primary reference for this material, and attribution is still contested among specialists working on late Bosporan and barbarian issues.