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Coin of the Month

September 2024: Pontos Euxeinos on coins

The Coin of this Month is presented by Ulrike Peter


We are still enjoying sunny weather with high temperatures; accordingly, many people spend their summer by the sea. Was the sea also deified in ancient times? How did a polis demonstrate its location by the sea or its particularly close connection to the sea? In provincial coinage coin images were very popular that not only depicted the river gods themselves, but also showed them at the feet of the respective city goddess. But what can be seen on the coins of Tomis?

Tomis, today's Constanta, known to most as Ovid's place of exile, was located on the western coast of the Black Sea. The city was built on a strategically favorable promontory with a good anchorage. Coins from the Antonine and Severan periods depict the sea god Poseidon, holding a trident and a dolphin, sometimes resting his foot on the prow of a ship, on coins from Tomis. However, this is not the only indication of the city's connection to the Black Sea, known as Pontos Euxeinos. From the Severan period until the end of the coinage under Philip the Arab, there is also a highly interesting type that features a standing Tyche as the city goddess, with a kalathos or, as on the coin presented here, a mural crown. She leans on a long scepter and holds a cornucopia. At her feet, the head and upper body of another figure can be seen. On our coin from the collection of the Academy in Berlin, the city goddess places her left foot on this figure. Identification of this figure as Pontos was achieved in the second half of the 19th century thanks to the crab claws clearly visible on the head of the partially emerging figure.

The iconography of a standing or seated city goddess with a reclining river god is known from numerous mints. Similar coins, showing a Tyche and Pontos, have also been documented from the cities of Amisos (in Pontus) and Heraclea (in Bithynia) along the southern coast of the Black Sea. The personification of the sea in general—Thalassa—was also depicted with crab claws on the head. However, in the case of Tomis, it is the male counterpart to Thalassa, symbolizing Pontos Euxeinos, which is evident from the beard, clearly indicating a male deity. Kurt Regling, who published the first corpus of Tomis coins, suggested that this depiction may have had a statuary model in Tomis. As the reverse coin legend ΜΗΤΡΟΠ(όλεως) ΠΟΝΤΟΥ ΤΟΜΕΩϹ indicates, the coins were issued on behalf of the citizens of Tomis, who held the title "Metropolis of Pontos." The coin does not bear a denomination, which was typical for some denominations of Tomis coins. However, the depiction of a double portrait of Philippus Caesar and Sarapis on the obverse identifies the coin as the largest denomination minted under Philip the Arab.






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