Tetradrachm - Mithridates VI Eupator Pergamon; HΣ A

Mithridates VI Eupator launched a systematic coinage reform around 96–90 BC, replacing the earlier civic Pergamene tetradrachm types with issues bearing his own portrait — a calculated assertion of authority over the newly absorbed territories of western Anatolia. The HΣ A control marks place this piece within the Pergamon mint's output during the years just before the First Mithridatic War, when the king was consolidating his grip on Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Black Sea coast simultaneously.

De Callataÿ's die study remains the essential reference for sequencing these issues; without it, the dense overlapping control-mark series from Pergamon and Amisos would be nearly impossible to disentangle.