Catalog
Didrachm
| Issuer | Pergamon |
|---|---|
| Year | 166 BC - 67 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A Heracles club draped with a lion's skin, displayed upright in the field, flanked by grape clusters on either side. The entire design is encircled by a broad laurel wreath rendered in high relief, its leaves arranged symmetrically around the central motif. The composition reflects the civic and Dionysiac iconography characteristic of Pergamene coinage of the Cistophoric era. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A large grape cluster with prominent individual berries depicted centrally, flanked by broad vine leaves rendered in detailed relief. A horizontal thyrsos or stylis appears to the upper left of the composition. The design continues the Dionysiac thematic programme of the series, consistent with the artistic conventions of Pergamene silver coinage of the second and first centuries BC. |
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| Additional information |
Pergamon's silver didrachm belongs to the civic coinage the city struck after Rome dissolved the Attalid kingdom in 133 BC and reorganized the region as the province of Asia. The transition from royal to autonomous civic coinage was administratively abrupt — Attalos III's bequest of the kingdom to Rome left Pergamon's minting apparatus intact but stripped of royal authority almost overnight. The city nonetheless retained considerable prestige and continued producing quality silver under its own name.
The date range straddles both the late Attalid period and the early Roman provincial era, making attribution of individual specimens to one political moment or the other genuinely difficult without die study.