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Drachm
| Issuer | Apollonia Pontika |
|---|---|
| Year | 425 BC - 350 BC |
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| Reference(s) | SNG BM Black Sea#160-161 |
| Obverse description | Facing gorgoneion (Medusa head) depicted full face at centre, rendered in archaic style with wide-open eyes, protruding tongue, and curling serpentine locks radiating symmetrically around the visage. The hair is composed of a ring of coiled snakes arranged in a decorative border encircling the face. The bold, apotropaic image fills the entire flan, characteristic of the early coinage of Apollonia Pontika. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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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.