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Drachm
| Issuer | Apollonia Pontika |
|---|---|
| Year | 425 BC - 350 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Drachm (1) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Upright anchor displayed in the centre of the field, its stock at top and flukes extending outward at the lower shaft, serving as the principal civic emblem of the maritime colony of Apollonia Pontika. The Greek letter Alpha (A) appears to the left of the anchor shank as a mint initial or ethnic abbreviation. A crayfish or lobster is depicted to the right of the anchor as a secondary control symbol. The design is executed within a plain incuse square typical of early Greek hammered coinage. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Apollonia Pontika |
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| Additional information |
Apollonia Pontika — modern Sozopol on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast — was a Milesian colony whose silver coinage circulated widely among the trading ports of the western Pontic littoral. The city's prosperity rested almost entirely on its control of Black Sea fishing routes and the export of salted fish, and these small drachms served the daily transactions of that trade rather than any ceremonial function.
The SNG BM Black Sea references place this issue firmly within a well-documented but numerically limited corpus. Dies were cut locally, and alignment irregularities are common across the type.