Catalog
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| Issuer | Pantikapaion |
|---|---|
| Year | 470 BC - 460 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Facing lion's head rendered in bold archaic relief, depicted en face with furrowed brow, prominent round eyes, and a broadly modeled muzzle displaying a row of teeth. The mane radiates outward in stylized striated locks framing the visage, characteristic of early Pontic Greek coinage. The surface of the flan is irregular, and no legend or inscription is present in the field. |
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| Mintage | ND (470 BC - 460 BC) |
| Additional information |
Pantikapaion — modern Kerch, on the Crimean side of the Bosporan strait — was among the earliest Greek colonies on the northern Black Sea coast to strike its own silver coinage, doing so to facilitate grain and fish trade that supplied much of classical Athens. This diobol belongs to the earliest phase of that civic coinage, predating the famous pan-Bosporan kingdom and issued when the city was still an independent Milesian foundation navigating Scythian neighbors and Athenian commercial demand simultaneously.
The MacDonald 3/3 classification places this among a small, tight die group.