Весовая монетная система Пантикапея

The author traces the origin and development of the weight-based monetary system which existed in Panticapaeum from the 6th to the beginning of the 4th centuries B.C. The study of the published early Panticapaeum coins suggests the conclusion that the monetary system of Panticapaeum had unique features not to be found in other regions of the Greek world.

It is noted, in particular, that the heaviest (6.70 gr.) drachma coin from the first Panticapaeum series may have been used as a standard. Its weight, apparently, was to demonstrate the orientation of Panticapaeum minting on the Aegina weight system. On the other hand, however, the coin doesn’t correlate with the weights of the coins of smaller denominations. These conclusions are based on the data obtained by using the frequency table. This method shows that all the denominations of Bosporan coins from diobol downwards were minted independently of the standards of such well-known and widely spread weight systems as those of Aegina, Athens and Persia.

This provides sufficient grounds for a supposition that the smaller coins of Panticapaean minting, such as tetartemorions, hemiobols and, probably, obols, functioned, independently of their actual weight, as mere counting units whose rate with respect to the main denomination was firmly fixed. The system may have resulted from the adaptation of that of Greek colonies (and Panticapaeum in particular) to local circumstances.