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Coin of the Month

June 2025: A countermarked bronze coin of Lysimacheia

The Coin of this Month is presented by Vladimir Stolba


The coin presented here belongs to the largest bronze denomination ever minted in Lysimacheia. These coins enjoyed more scholarly attention than any other variety of local civic bronzes. While previous research focused primarily on the identity of the portraits depicted on their obverses, this time I would like to highlight rather a secondary feature—a countermark that helps situate the issue within the civic coinage of Lysimacheia.

While on the reverse of coins in this series we find an image of a lion quite common both for the royal issues of Lysimachus and for the civic issues of the city bearing his name, the obverse image with a male portrait in a royal diadem strikingly departs from the traditional typology of both coinages. Despite suggestions to see in it Alexander, Agathocles (son of Lysimachus), or other Hellenistic monarchs whose fate was somehow connected with the city's history, its attribution as Lysimachus, proposed in the mid-19th century by Müller (1857) and supported by modern researchers, remains most convincing. Significantly less unanimity is observed regarding the time of this issue. In her specialized article, Bulgarian researcher Yordanka Yurukova attributed it to the period after Lysimachus's death, who fell in 281 BC at the Battle of Corupedium (Jurukova 1998). A number of modern researchers disagree with her and tend to consider these issues as lifetime emissions (e.g. Lichtenberger et al. 2008; Riedel 2016). The monograms found on these coins have no complete correspondence in other issues of Lysimacheia, nor indeed in the royal coinage of Lysimachus. These coins are also not represented in known hoards. All this complicates their chronological attribution. Countermarks prove useful here, which were applied to both royal and civic coins. Three varieties of them are known on coins of the portrait series: lyre, spearhead, and star. The last of these can be clearly seen on the specimen presented here. None of these countermarks appears on lifetime royal coins of Lysimachus, which prevents attributing the issue considered here to the time before 281 BC. At the same time, these countermarks are well known on civic coins of the Demeter/wreath (e.g. SNG Soutzos 241) and Athena/lion (e.g. SNG Cop 918) types, which provides grounds for their synchronization and dating within the second quarter of the 3rd century BC.

Literature

Jurukova J. 1998. Le monnayage de bronze de Lysimachie, Numizmatika i sfragistika 5, 16–30.

Lichtenberger A., Nieswandt H.-H., Salzmann D. 2008. Ein Porträt des Lysimachos? Anmerkungen zu einem anonymen Herrscherbild auf den Münzen von Lysimacheia, in: E. Winter, F. Biller (eds.), Vom Euphrat bis zum Bosporus : Kleinasien in der Antike ; Festschrift für Elmar Schwertheim zum 65. Geburtstag (Asia Minor Studien 65). Bonn: Habelt, 391-407.

Müller L. 1857. Den thraciske Konge Lysimachus’s Mynter. Kjöbenhavn.

Riedel S. 2016. ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ – Die Götterwelt(en) des Lysimachos und seiner Residenzstadt Lysimacheia im Spiegel der Münzen, in: H. Schwarzer et al. (eds.), "Man kann es sich nicht prächtig genug vorstellen": Festschrift für Dieter Salzmann zum 65. Geburtstag. Münster: Scriptorum, 171-182.




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