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Stater - Ininthimeus
| Issuer | Bosporan Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 239 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Laureate and draped bust of a Roman emperor facing right, crowned with a wreath and wearing armour or a paludamentum, set within a beaded border. The portrait reflects the customary Bosporan practice of depicting the reigning Roman emperor on the reverse as a token of political allegiance. In the lower field appears the date inscription ΕΛΦ, denoting regnal year 535 of the Bosporan Era, corresponding to 239 AD. The rendering is in the local Bosporan die-cutting style, combining Roman imperial iconography with provincial workmanship. |
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| Mintage | 535 (239 AD) |
| Additional information |
Ininthimeus ruled the Bosporan Kingdom for roughly a decade during the mid-third century, a period when the kingdom was increasingly dependent on — and threatened by — Gothic and other steppe confederacies pressing around the Black Sea littoral. His billon staters represent the continuation of a coinage that had been debasing steadily for generations; by this point the nominal electrum of earlier Bosporan issues had long since collapsed to a heavily copper-based alloy retaining only a surface wash of silver. The kingdom kept the stater denomination alive largely as a political instrument, maintaining the fiction of a Hellenistic monetary tradition.