jahrbuch numismatik geldgeschichte - Bayerische Numismatische ...

32 Peter F. Dorceycoinage. Accordingly, 281 is the terminus post quem for the new series atOdessos.The type is familiar to the numismatist: Alexander the Great appears onthe obverse in the guise of Herakles wearing the Nemean lion scalp; thereverse displays a seated Zeus enthroned between the legends BAEIAES2EAAEE,ANAPOY. At first the monogram for Odessos, or 0, appearseither below the deity's throne or in the left field. Later the monogram isexpanded to OAH, and in one instance to OAHEITQN. No pictorial Symbolwas used to indicate Odessos, unless the spear (?) on a reverse die of themoneyer acted as a mintmark (pl. 5, no. 3).From the beginning, officials' names appear in the field or exergue of thereverse. It is unclear whether these names represent moneyers, eponymouspriests4 or other local officials. We know almost nothing of Odessos' internalpolitical structure. The monograms or abbreviated names of these individualsappear consistently on silver until minting stopped sometimebefore 50, when Odessos was captured and destroyed by the Getae, providinga firm terminus ante quem for the city's Hellenistic coinage.The twenty-one magistrates who appear on the tetradrachm issue must befitted into a 231 year period beginning in 281.5 Obviously coinage was notannual if a yearly election of officials is assumed. Rather, minting was irregularand highly infrequent throughout since each moneyer coined onlyonce. Some seem to have issued bronze and gold (with different types) in additionto silver.6On the basis of hoard evidence, artistic style and die linkage, twochronological groups can be recognized, perhaps separated by a hiatus inminting activities. The earliest coins are classical in design and include thefollowing eleven moneyers (Group I): K , KOI, KYPIA, KAEAN, er4 Pick-Regling, op. cit., 522, notes a possible correspondence between some of the moneyers'names on this issue and those of priests on an inscription found at Odessos (G. Mihailov,Inscriptiones Graecae in Bulgaria Repertae (Sophia 1970) I, 103-106, no. 46 (hence forthcited as IG Bulg). Both sets of names, however, are too abbreviated to make any identificationabsolute.5 I do not follow Price's attribution of OEOYME and N( to Odessos. The latter is die linked(with ANS coins) with AFIOAA, I1PO and e at Messembria. Pick-Regling recordsall moneyers except iy and e.6The abbreviated names or monograms of these magistrates cannot always be distinguishedfrom one another. EY and EYIIPO, and OE and ()EM(I) may represent the samemoneyers, although distinctive styles suggest different magistrates issuing years apart fromone another.e, AH, OE and AFA are moneyers found also on copper issues of Odessos: see Pick-Regling, op. cit., 542, no. 2182; 546, no. 2199; 545, no. 2195; 550, nos. 2216-2218. KOI andKAEAN also appear on gold staters with the posthumous portrait of Alexander issued inthe narre of Lysimachus at Odessos: see Pick-Regling, op. cit., 530, nos. 2119-2122; 532,nos. 2133-2134.