A NEW TYPE OF OLBIAN DRACHMA FROM THE MID-2ND CENTURY BC
A NEW TYPE OF OLBIAN DRACHMA FROM THE MID-2ND CENTURY BC

Summary/Abstract: Purpose and Scientific Novelty. The aim of this article is to study and introduce into scholarly circulation a new, previously unknown type of Olbian silver drachm dated to the mid-2nd century BC. Conclusions. The newly discovered coin described by the authors, as well as the poorly preserved specimen from Count A. Uvarov’s collection published by A. Oreshnikov, were struck with the same dies, indicating that this coinage was most likely extremely limited and served primarily a political rather than an economic purpose. On the piece from Uvarov’s collection the obverse with the depiction of Demeter is preserved, while on the reverse only part of the legend can be read–a fragment of a personal name that led to various hypotheses regarding its full form. Most importantly, the ethnicon–the mint name–was missing. On the newly discovered specimen almost the entire design is preserved, which allows the authors to confidently attribute the coin to an emission of the Greek apoikia Olbia in the north-western Black Sea region. Thanks to this numismatic evidence–particularly the silver drachm bearing the name ΛΕΛΗΑΝ (likely Lelianos)–a new page in the history of Olbia becomes accessible to scholarship, specifically regarding the relations of the ancient polis with a previously unknown figure (presumably Lelianos/Λελιανός). However, it remains for future research to establish who this individual was and what role he played in Olbia’s history. Some of the authors have proposed the hypothesis that ΛΕΛΗΑΝ (Lelianos/Λελιανός) may represent an otherwise unknown Scythian dynast. The studied drachm with the name ΛΕΛΗΑΝ weighs 3.61 g, which indicates that it was struck in Olbia according to the ChianRhodian weight standard for drachms (≈ 3.89 g), most likely as a single emission during the chronological interval of 160–140 BC.

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