Rhescuporis II ruled the Bosporan Kingdom as a client of Rome, and these electrum staters — struck in the final year of Caracalla's reign — reflect a monetary system that had been debasing steadily for generations. By 217, Bosporan electrum contained a fraction of the gold that earlier issues had carried, the alloy increasingly adulterated with copper and silver as the kingdom's economy strained under tribute obligations and frontier pressures from steppe peoples to the north.
Caracalla was assassinated by his own soldiers in April of 217, making this among the last coinages to bear his association before Macrinus displaced him.
Rhescuporis II ruled the Bosporan Kingdom as a client of Rome, and these electrum staters — struck in the final year of Caracalla's reign — reflect a monetary system that had been debasing steadily for generations. By 217, Bosporan electrum contained a fraction of the gold that earlier issues had carried, the alloy increasingly adulterated with copper and silver as the kingdom's economy strained under tribute obligations and frontier pressures from steppe peoples to the north.
Caracalla was assassinated by his own soldiers in April of 217, making this among the last coinages to bear his association before Macrinus displaced him.