Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Ꜹ Unit - Aphilas
| Issuer | Aksum |
|---|---|
| Year | 305-315 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of King Aphilas facing right, crowned and wearing a triangular ribbon extending behind the head, holding a staff or stick in the right hand. The effigy is flanked on each side by a grain stalk rising vertically in the field. Above the bust, a pellet on crescent motif bisects the encircling Greek legend. The design is contained within a border of dots. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | AξⲰMITⲰ BICI ΔIMHΛH (Translation: [...] of the Aksumites, man of Dimele) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Aphilas ruled Aksum in the early fourth century, and his gold issues mark a critical transitional moment in the kingdom's coinage: he was among the first Aksumite kings to place a gilt disc above the royal portrait — a device that would evolve, under his successors, into the gilded crescent-and-disc symbol that defines the series. The innovation appears abruptly with no obvious external model, suggesting it originated within the Aksumite court itself.
These coins circulated in a kingdom that controlled the Red Sea trade corridor between the Roman Empire and India, and the consistently high gold fineness reflects access to sub-Saharan alluvial sources rather than recycled bullion.