Price 2803: Reattribution of a Macedonian Regal Bronze Coin from Western Asia Minor to Tarsus in Cilicia

Authors : Dinçer Savaş Lenger

Pages : 445-456

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Publication Date : 2021-05-31

Article Type : Research

Abstract :The subject of this article is the bronze issue which bears a shield ornamented with the head of Herakles to ¾ r. on the obverse and a helmet on the reverse side along with the initials B-A, monogram below left, and a kerykeion below right. These coins were issued to be given at the beginning of the month to meet the daily needs of soldiers in the Macedonian army. This issue has been classified under the title of Asia Minor and sometimes Western Asia Minor without any mint attribution in the main reference sources. However, there is no recorded example of these from archaeological excavations and surveys carried out in Western Anatolia. But these coins, which do not circulate in the west, appear in the Cilician region. Samples were found and recorded in the excavations of Nagidos, Olba and Tarsus Gözlükule. The most suitable minting place for these bronze coins, which are found intensely in and around Tarsus, is naturally Tarsus, the most important mint in the region of the Macedonian kingdom. On other Macedonian regal bronze coins minted in this city, the kerykeion symbol is often used and on some examples, both kerykeion and monogram are used. More than twenty of these bronze coins known to be included in museums of Ankara Anatolian Civilizations, Izmir, Sinop, Afyon and Adana are included in the Mersin Archeology Museum collection, which is located only 25 km from Tarsus; on the other side it does not circulate in Salamis and throughout Cyprus which issued bronze coins with a kerykeion symbol and monogram. These facts support the attribution to Tarsus.
Keywords : Macedonian coins, Asia Minor, bronze coins, Tarsus, Cilicia, Hellenistic Period.