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Diobol
| Issuer | Pantikapaion (Bosporos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 437 BC - 430 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Facing head of a lion rendered in high relief, depicted frontally with finely engraved radiating mane fanning outward around the skull. The facial features are boldly modelled, with a broad muzzle, prominent brow ridges, and deeply set eyes conveying a powerful archaic character. The treatment of the mane displays accomplished die-cutting typical of early Pantikapaion coinage, with individual locks incised in a stylised yet naturalistic manner. The type fills the flan, leaving virtually no field visible. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Incuse square divided into four quadrants by a raised cruciform pattern, creating a windmill or swastika-like arrangement characteristic of early Greek fractional silver coinage. The upper-left quadrant contains the Greek letter Π (Pi), the upper-right quadrant the letter Α (Alpha), and the lower-right quadrant the letter Ν (Nu), together forming the civic abbreviation ΠΑΝ for Pantikapaion. The lower-left quadrant features a small eight-rayed star with a central pellet, a secondary civic badge of the mint. The geometric incuse design is executed in the archaic mill-sail technique. |
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| Additional information |
Pantikapaion — modern Kerch, on the Crimean side of the Cimmerian Bosporos — was a Milesian colony that had grown wealthy enough by the mid-fifth century to strike its own silver coinage in parallel with broader Greek monetary conventions. This diobol falls within the early civic series, before the city came under firm Spartocid dynastic control around 438–437 BC, a transition that would eventually produce one of the ancient world's most commercially aggressive Greek colonial states.
The multiple catalog references — Anokhin, MacDonald, HGC, SNG Stancomb — reflect decades of disagreement over precise dating within this early series.