Catalog
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| Issuer | Bosporan Kingdom (Bosporos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 38 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 8.10 g |
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| Obverse description | Diademed portrait bust of King Asander facing right, rendered in high Hellenistic relief with curling hair beneath the royal diadem. The effigy displays finely modelled facial features with a strong jaw and aquiline profile, characteristic of late Hellenistic royal portraiture. The neck is bare and the truncation falls at the lower edge of the flan. The field is plain and unlettered on the obverse, with the irregular flan edge typical of hammered Bosporan gold coinage of the period. |
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Asander seized control of the Bosporan Kingdom by killing his father-in-law Pharnaces II around 47 BC, then spent the next decade carefully cultivating Roman favor to legitimize his rule. By 38 BC, when this stater was struck, he had formally adopted the title of king — a shift visible across the coinage sequence and recorded by Appian. The transition from archon to basileus in the titulature on Bosporan gold of this period makes die dating unusually precise for a provincial mint of this era's output.