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Coin of the Month

December 2018: Pautalia

The Coin of this Month is presented by Lily Grozdanova


Dear CNT-community, as many of you already know we started in the middle of 2017 with our second funding period dedicated to defining the types of the Thracian coins. In 2018 to this purpose we are going to extend our database which will then include also the coin types. In our new Type of the Month section we want to present some of our ongoing work.

The chosen for the month December type is attested on a coin from the numismatic collection of Münzkabinett, Berlin, Germany.
The relevance of the civic type of the roman provincial coinage, to the topic of the polis identity and self-representation, is actively being discussed in the scientific literature. The type of interest presents an intriguing example in this direction.
Till the moment the detailed and meaningful design is known only from the coinage of Pautalia. The city mint is issuing from the time of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161) till that of Caracalla (AD 198-217). The coin type is attested for representatives of the Severan dynasty. It represents the nymph of the Strymon valley surrounded by the riches of the region. The design very utterly enlists, both through the iconography and the legend, the resources that the city of Pautalia actually has at its disposal. The four depicted genii are represented conducting activities related to the natural resources – gold, silver, ore, grape and grains.
The beautiful and characteristic die design analyzed in the light of the other sources concerning the economic activities of the city seems to have been produced as a straightforward promotion of the polis’ resources and economic potential.



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