No Small Change: Countermarks on Thracian Royal Bronzes (original) (raw)
Related papers
Control marks on Hellenistic royal coinages: use, and evolution towards simplification?
Revue belge de Numismatique, 2012
is paper aims to shed light on the interpretation of secondary marks (symbols, monograms and letters) on Hellenistic royal issues. ese marks have been variously interpreted as personal marks of a range of people, acting either outside the mint (the eponym magistrate of the city, the magistrate in charge of the monetary affairs, the benefactor who provides the metal, or even the military commander for whom coins were primarily issued) or inside the mint (the mint master, the engraver or various subordinate monetary officials). ey have also been attributed to non-personal purposes (to identify officinae, indicate the source of the metal, or to designate military units as beneficiaries). Not all these explanations are convincing, and several appear very unlikely or exceptional (magistrates, liturges, engravers, military officers or units). e marks are best viewed as internal control marks, whose number and efficiency have to be considered in their broader archival context. Hence, the paucity of secondary marks on late Ptolemaic issues (a year and a mint) likely implies a more secure system of written records.
Gephyra, 2018
From the reign of Nero to the ensuing civil wars (68-69 CE), the regions of Moesia and Thrace witnessed the widespread coining of Neronian bronze with Latin legends, typified by the 'reproduction' of certain types from the mints in Rome and Lugdunum. Especially noteworthy was the Perinthus mint, whose specimens circulated alongside local coinage with Greek legends. These issues, along with certain bronze series from the mints in Nicaea and Nicomedia, would later undergo widespread countermarking in the Danube and Asia Minor regions with countermark types using the emperor Galba's name, in both Latin and Greek lettering, either spelled out or abbreviated. Minting order and the subsequent countermarking allow us to again take up some major questions that have arisen regarding the coinage and distribution of imperial bronze in the western part of the Empire from the time of Augustus' monetary reform onward. The complexity and multiple ramifications of this phenomenon have heretofore stymied attempts to devise an accepted, definitive explanation. Specifically, a framework is needed to comprehend the several outright local 'reruns.' Most of these are struck but a few are cast, and evidence shows they circulated daily alongside official issue, whose types they unflinchingly imitated from the central mints in Rome and Lugdunum, even while clearly bearing stylistic and morphological features that were generally inferior to their models. However, among this broad set of widespread issue various levels of production are found, with differing degrees of adherence to prototypical output from the main mints.
Imprints of Roman Imperium: Bronze Coinages in the Republican Eastern Provinces
Galani, G. Imprints of Roman Imperium: Bronze Coinages in the Republican Eastern Provinces, Stockholm, 2022
The last century of the Republic bears the signs of a rapidly transforming reality, and acts as a prelude to the Imperial era. There might not yet be an emperor appearing as a dominant individual, but the supreme authority of Rome as imperium populi Romani is present in the provinces, via her agents. In this respect, bronze coinages of the Roman Republican provinces in the Eastern Mediterranean during the 1st century BC form an integral part of the currency that was in use in the Roman Mediterranean. The numismatic material of the six Republican provinces (Macedonia, Asia, Cyrenaica-Crete, Bithynia-Pontus, Syria and Cilicia-Cyprus) reveals that bronze minting underwent some major transformations in both iconographic and metrological terms. These new features, their interaction with older, continuing traditions and the way in which they spread across the different provinces reveal some broader tendencies of the Roman provincial administration and of a variety of local responses to the transforming Roman hegemony. Finally, the emerging minting landscape, shaped during this early period of Roman control, foreshadows the Imperial period in matters of coin production and the organisation of bronze minting in the provinces. ISBN: 978-91-7911-722-1 (print) ISBN: 978-91-7911-723-8 (electronic) Open access in DiVA: diva2:1615400
M. Tasaklaki, 2018
Based on statistical analysis of more than 1200 Roman and provincial coins found in Aegean Thrace, the present study aims to reconstruct the monetary circulation and to trace the relations between the cities that prospered between the 1 st and the 3 rd c. 1 : Topeiros, Abdera, Maroneia, Traianopolis and Plotinopolis. Those cities were affected directly or indirectly by the Roman administrative changes in the province of Thrace in the course of three centuries. Their monetary production, compared with the presence of Roman imperial coins in the area, points to their mutually complementary relations.
2021
It is certain that the Roman provincial monetary policy was not centralized; on the contrary, elements of decen-tralization can be traced in tandem with the establishment or re-establishment of administrative structures. It was within this framework that capitals and other provincial cities struck coins. The aim of this study is to discuss the complex relationship between the province’s main city – in our case Perinthos – and its hinterland in terms of nu-mismatic policy: excluding issues that can be safely characterized as non-systematic, the city-issues are examined in light of the real needs of the urban centre and in connection with the mobility of the army. Such an approach allows us to explore holistically how networks were developed within the province. Thus, although Perinthos firmly remained the administrative base of Thrace, the monetary centre shifted from time to time, depending on the needs of the province and the empire. Lastly, this paper discusses whether this particular relationship between the capital and local mints in the province of Thrace appears elsewhere.
Coin use in the Roman Republic
In: F. Haymann, W. Hollstein and M. Jehne (eds.), Neue Forschungen zur Münzprägung der Römischen Republik. Beiträge zum internationalen Kolloquium im Residenzschloss Dresden 19.-21. Juni 2014, Nomismata 8 (Bonn 2016) 347-372, 2016
During the late third and early second centuries BC Rome’s empire expanded immensely. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the changes in coinage both during and after Roman military activity throughout the Mediterranean basin, and then to determine how these changes illustrate Rome’s economic philosophy when considering provincial coinage. Iberia, Sicily, and Greece will be utilised as case studies for this thesis, each demonstrating a unique numismatic reaction to their incorporation into the Roman empire. Additionally, this thesis will explore the Mediterranean’s active Market economy during the second century BC, and both the history of Roman coinage, and the contemporary numismatic situation occurring within Rome during the second century BC. By presenting these case studies this thesis demonstrates that ancient coinage is a tangible piece of evidence for the analysis of how Rome perceived their role as an Imperial power, and the power dynamic in relation to the provincial people which accompanied it. Further, coinage is brought forward as a valuable source of evidence during a period where contemporary historical literature is scarce, and therefore, the numismatic record brings to light the local monetary response to their developing political environment.