Stater - Aspurgus Augustus and Agrippa

Aspurgus consolidated Bosporan rule by playing Rome with exceptional skill — obtaining recognition from Augustus and then Tiberius, and formally adopting the title of king only after Roman approval around 14 AD. This stater belongs to the period when he still displayed Roman imperial heads alongside his own, a calculated public reminder of where his authority derived from. The pairing with Agrippa rather than a reigning emperor places this issue in a narrow chronological window, as Agrippa died in 12 BC, making posthumous honors on Bosporan coinage a deliberate political gesture rather than a current allegiance.