Hemidrachm

Chersonesos maintained an unusual degree of monetary autonomy for a Greek colonial city well into the Hellenistic period, continuing to strike its own silver coinage at a time when most Black Sea cities had capitulated to Macedonian or Pontic monetary conventions. This hemidrachm falls within a politically turbulent decade — the 220s and 210s BC saw increasing pressure from the Scythian kingdom of the northwestern Pontic steppe, pressure that would eventually force Chersonesos into a formal alliance with Pontic Mithridates later in the century.