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Coin of the Month

April 2024: A New Coin Variety from Dardanos

The Coin of this Month is presented by Vladimir Stolba


It has been approximately four years since a coin of Dardanos was featured as our Coin of the Month. Since then, a number of new previously unpublished varieties, mostly from commerce, have emerged. One of them was chosen as our Coin of the Month for April 2024.

Dardanos, situated approximately 14 km south of its more prominent neighbour city, Abydos, produced coins throughout its period of autonomy and under Roman dominance. Although its coinage was not as abundant as that of Abydos, both cities were quite conservative in terms of their coin typology. While Abydos featured coins dominated by images of an eagle and Apollo or his twin-sister Artemis, Dardanos featured an equestrian and a rooster. These images we also find on our Coin of the Month. The identity of the horseman, depicted with a raised hand on earlier issues and armed with a spear towards the end of the Hellenistic period, remains unknown. The specimen presented here recently emerged in commerce. On its obverse, we find an abbreviated, previously unattested name ΔΕΙ, presumably an official who controlled the production. The lunate shape of epsilon suggests a late Hellenistic date, possibly in the first century BC. One may wonder if this official is identical to Δεινοκλῆς, the father of Apollodoros, mentioned in the first-century inscription IG XII (8) 173 b, 12. However, this individual appears to be the only one thus far attested in Dardanos whose name begins with Δει( ).



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