Coins of the Thracian Chersonese

Topography and History

The so-called Thracian Chersonese, today Gelibolu/Gallipoli, is an elongated peninsula, which has always been a strategic point at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. The peninsula stretches along the coast of Asia Minor, with the Hellespont between the two. In antiquity, the Thracian Chersonesus was mainly populated on the eastern side, since shipping traffic between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea passed here; but there were also settlements on the Aegean side¹. While the southern part of the Hellespontine coast is mainly characterized by narrow mountain valleys, agriculture and animal husbandry are possible in the northern part with its fertile plains². In addition to the strategically favourable position, agriculture is the second reason for settling on the peninsula, which since the time of Miltiades was protected from invaders by a transverse wall.

The peninsula appears in literary accounts since Homer³. Thucydides reports that the Chersonese is occupied by the Thracians, who mainly have exchanges with the coast of Asia Minor⁴.

The earliest mention of the name of the Thracian Chersonese can be found in Hekataios⁵. Herodotos reports of the tribe of the Dolonkoi on the peninsula, which also brought Miltiades the Elder to the area as support against the Apsinthians⁶.

Greek settlements on the peninsula appear in the course of the Greek colonization, probably from the 7th century BC and on⁷. Since the mid-6th century, Athens attempts to gain dominance in this region. By Miltiades the Younger numerous settlements were founded or re-established. In the Peloponnesian War, the Thracian Chersonesus played a crucial role. It was also the starting point of Alexander the Great's Asian campaign.

Since the end of World War I, the peninsula has been a restricted military area, which made archaeological investigations more difficult⁸.

State of Research

Except for several papers dealing with different aspects of the coinage, a comprehensive study on the coinage of the Thracian Chersonesus is still missing⁹. Various imponderables are associated with this coinage; it is unclear, for example, which coin types can be assigned to a federal coinage of the peninsula. In our typology, we take into account coins that are clearly identifiable by their legends, as well as coins traditionally attributed to this area in numismatic literature. Although, due to partial similarity of its motifs, Kardia has repeatedly been suggested as the mint of the series, the coins are listed in the Corpus Nummorum database under a fictitious mint "Thracian Chersonese" to distinguish them from the civic mint of Kardia.

Minting System and Typology

Various silver and bronze coins were attributed to the Thracian Chersonese, Kardia/Lysimacheia or Agora/Chersonesos being generally accepted as their mint. The ascription is based on the legends XEP or XEPPO and metrological, thematic and stylistic similarities to these. Recurring motifs in both metals are the head of Athena, the head or forepart of a lion and the grain of barley.

Silver Coinage

In numismatic literature, two clearly distinguishable series in silver are assigned to the Thracian Chersonese and interpreted as a kind of joint coinage for payments or foreign trade¹⁰.

The elder series of staters/tetradrachms (16.2-16.9 g.) shows a lion looking back on the obverse and a head of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet on the reverse¹¹. In their recent study of this series, K. Sheedy and G. Davis argue for their production in Kardia around 478-466 BC on the heavy Persian standard¹². P. van Alfen considers coins with the forepart of a lion with reverted head on the obverse and quadratum incusum on the reverse smaller denominations of this series (1/6, 1/12 and 1/48 of a stater)¹³. 1/6, 1/12, 1/24 and 1/48 staters with lion's head and incuse can also be dated to this period and belong to the coinage of the Chersonese¹⁴.

A chronologically much later - dated to the second half of the 4th c. BC¹⁵ - and considerably larger coinage represented by hemidrachms¹⁶ shows the forepart of a lion with reverted head on the obverse and an incuse square on the reverse. The two opposite depressions of the quadratum incusum usually contain letters, symbols, or monograms¹⁷. The diameter of the coins ranges from 12 to 15 mm, about 80% having a diameter of 13-14 mm. Their weight varies between 1.77 g and 2.79 g, the majority of the specimens weighing between 2.2 and 2.4 g, which is a bit too low for their assumed Persian standard¹⁸. The series of these coins is very large and typologically distinguishable by the different letters, monograms and symbols¹⁹, as well as by their combinations²⁰, on the reverse. The dies used in the production were often larger than the blanks, which often had an effect that the images of both sides were not fully reproduced. There are countless specimens on which the symbols are indistinct or lie outside of the flan, which suggests their rapid production²¹.

Iulia Tzvetkova mentions 34 hoards of these hemidrachms known from the numismatic literature²². Recently, P. van Alfen published a larger hoard of these hemidrachms, which is said to come from the Thracian area²³. In hoards, especially in present-day Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey, these coins are often found together with the hemidrachms of Parion²⁴.

Bronze Coinage

In the second half of the 4th century BC, bronze coins with the obverse motifs of a lion's head to the right²⁵ or left²⁶, a three-quarter view of a female head²⁷ and a head of Athena²⁸ and a grain of barley on the reverse were produced. Their assignment to the Thracian Chersonese is secured by the reverse inscriptions XEPPO or XE. These bronzes usually belong to a denomination class with a diameter of 10-12 mm and an average weight of 1.4 g²⁹.

Our catalogue of types represents the state of research as of January 2023 and does not take into account any coin types that became known later. Further information, especially on new types, is always welcome.