Tetrachalkon - Mithridates VI

Amisos enjoyed a peculiar semi-autonomous status under Mithridates VI, who permitted the city to issue bronze coinage in its own name — a political concession that kept the prosperous Black Sea port cooperative without requiring direct administrative absorption. The city had been refounded and renamed Piraeus briefly under Athenian colonists before reverting to its older identity, and that civic pride was evidently worth managing carefully.

The extraordinarily long reign span attributed to this type reflects the difficulty of narrowing production within Mithridates' 57-year rule. After Lucullus sacked Amisos in 71 BC, Pompey formally restored the city, but bronze civic coinage of this type had effectively ended.