A NEW MITHRIDATIC MINT FOR THE BRONZES WITH THE LEGEND ΣAMIΣOΗΣ (SUPPLEMENT)
A NEW MITHRIDATIC MINT FOR THE BRONZES WITH THE LEGEND ΣAMIΣOΗΣ (SUPPLEMENT)

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to introduce into scholarly circulation a new, previously unattested coin type, namely the sole known specimen of a copper coin of the smallest denomination D – the Perseus/Harpa type – struck at a mint located in central Pontus. The theoretical and methodological basis of this study consists of a combination of general scholarly and numismatic methods, determined primarily by the available source material and an assessment of its reliability. Scholarly novelty. This is the first publication of a copper coin of the smallest denomination D of the Perseus/Harpa type minted at the σAMI-ΣOΗΣ mint. Conclusions and main results of the study. The newly identified and analysed copper coin of the smallest denomination D, of the Perseus/Harpa type and bearing the legend ΣAMIΣOΗΣ, is unique and currently represented by a single specimen. The coin belongs to the fourth group of bronze issues of the Pontic kingdom under Mithridates VI Eupator, which includes four coin types and denominations: “Athena/Perseus,” “Aegis/Nike,” “Dionysus/Thyrsus,” and “Perseus/Harpa.” The discovery of a denomination D coin allows the inclusion of the mint marked by the ethnicon ΣAMI-ΣOΗΣ among the four previously known mints—Amisus, Cabeira, Laodiceia, and Sinope—at which all four types of the fourth series were struck. Thus, five such mints are now attested. The mint designated by the ethnicon ΣAMI-ΣOΗΣ issued coins dated by one member of our team to the period before 85 BCE. Given the limited scale of production at this mint and the presence of only a single monogram on all types, the authors propose that ΣAMIΣOΗΣ represents a small mint located in the core territory of the Pontic kingdom, possibly corresponding to a fortified garrison site, analogous to the situations attested at Pimolisa and Taulara, as well as to the significant recent discoveries from the Kurul fortress.

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