A hoard of Pontic coins from the time of Mithridates VI Eupator from the chora of Olbia
A hoard of Pontic coins from the time of Mithridates VI Eupator from the chora of Olbia

Summary/Abstract: A hoard of bronze coins, consisting of Pontic and Paphlagonian coins from the reign of Mithradates VI Eupator, was found in 2022 in the Ochakiv district of the Mykolaiv oblast of Ukraine. This hoard is an important source for the history of monetary circulation in the northern Black Sea region as a whole, as well as for Olbia and its economic network in the northwestern Black Sea coastal and inland regions, in particular. Pontic coins in the hoard, minted by Mithradates VI, represent two successive groups (Groups 3 and 4) of bronze coins of the heavy Denomination A and the middle-weight Denomination B, inted in Amisus (80%), Amastris (10%), and Sinope (10%). Comparison with finds-both in single finds and hoards-discovered in the northern Black Sea region containing bronze coins minted in the Pontic kingdom of Mithradates VI, confirms the position of Karyshkovskii, formulated more than half a century earlier, that Olbia was by far the most well-represented city for finds of Pontic bronze coins of Groups 3 and 4. Hoards found on the territory of Pontus are characterized by a significant portion of coins from Amisus (72.12%), which may suggest that relations were stronger between Olbia and Pontus than Pontus and Paphlagonia. Our results support the conclusions of Saprykin, that the coinage of Amisus was dominant in Olbia. The bulk of the hoard (97.06%) is made up of coins of the middle-weight Denomination B, among which the Ares-Sword type comprises 32.07% and the Aegis-Nike type 67.83%. The hoard discussed in this article indicates that demand on the Olbian market for small change at the end of the 2nd century BCE and the first two decades of the 1st drove the import of significant quantities of the bronze coinage of Mithridates VI, primarily of the medium-weight Denomination B. For this reason, in this period, coins of smaller denominations were minted (albeit in limited numbers) in Olbia itself.

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