Catalogue of Ancient Coins in the Ossoliński National Institute. Part 6: Coins of the Roman Empire. Pertinax-Severus Alexander (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
The publication presents the results of research completed within the ‘Coins of the Roman Republic in Central Europe’ project implemented at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. The author discusses the coins of the Roman Republic found in East-Central Europe north of the Sudetes and the Carpathian mountains (the territories of Poland, western Belarus and western Ukraine) – issues from the period of the first Roman emissions until 27 BC. The region of interest was never a part of the Roman state. This means that all of the Roman coins found in this territory must be treated as imports. The main aim of this study is to specify the time, causes, circumstances and directions of the import of Republican coinage to the study area, and to determine its uses in this region. The book includes a foreword written by Aleksander Bursche and contains the inventory of the finds with a comprehensive commentary. It is both numismatic and archaeological in its subject matter, placing itself somewhere on the border between these two disciplines.
Until recently, finds of Roman provincial coins on the territory of Ukraine were rare (no more than thirty coins). But in recent years, situation has radically changed, due to the active use of metal detectors. Today, we can talk about several hundreds, or even thousands, finds of Roman provincial coins, most dated into the 3rd century AD and minted in the cities of the Balkan provinces. All of them are found in the area of the Chernyakhiv Culture (mainly between the middle reaches of Dnieper and the middle reaches of Dniester), which is associated with Gothic tribes. Inflow of these coins is associated with the events of the mid 3rd century AD exclusively, namely – with participation of the local barbarian population in the Gothic wars. Although the majority of coins originate from Viminacium and Provincia Dacia, among finds there is also a large number of coins from other cities of the Balkan provinces. The largest number includes coins of Marcianopolis, Filippopolis, Deultum, Anchial and Nicopolis ad Istrum. On one side, statistics of these finds draw a picture of their circulation in the Balkans. However, on the other hand, finds of such coins make it possible to clarify certain events of the Gothic wars, which are known in written sources and from archaeological research. In addition, today we can already say that the finds of Roman provincial coins, together with other categories of Roman coins and finds from the 3rd century AD, represent the early horizon of Chernyakhiv Culture.
Museion, 2023
The aim of the present article is to summarize the current state of research on the problem of inflow of Roman provincial coins struck in Balkan mints into Lesser Poland in Antiquity. The term “provincial coinage” as used here refers to coins from the mints producing coins for the purpose of provincial circulation, as well as to the so-called pseudo-autonomous and autonomous coinages struck in various local centres. To this time, 11 bronze coin finds produced in mints located in Dacia, Thrace, Moesia Superior and Macedonia have been registered in Lesser Poland. The chronological scope of this presentation is focused generally on the 3rd century AD; however, two coins come from the reigns of Augustus and Antoninus Pius.