Having already published material from the Neronian reforms of the 60s AD to the mid-4th century AD (BAR 1983 and 1979), this volume presents Bosphoran coinage from the incorporation of the Bosphorus into the kingdom of Mithradates VI of Pontus up to Nero's time. Essentially a corpus of material, it presents coinage from the State Historical Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, as well as smaller collections in Russia and the West. A short introduction precedes the catalogue and plates.

In two earlier publications (BAR S56 and BAR S166) Nina Frolova analysed the products that characterised the Bosporan Kingdom in the 300 years between the reforms introduced under Nero and the final demise of autonomous Bosporan coinage in the mid-fourth century. The present volume takes that historical process one stage back in time by detailing the issues produced between the incorporation of the Bosporus into the kingdom of Mithradates VI of Pontus and the Neronian reforms. By providing a detailed catalogue of the material held in the State Historical Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, together with subsidiary collections, it is hoped that this volume will enable scholars throughout the world to renew their interest in a region which for so long has suffered from the isolation imposed by politics.

Within the historical background of the 3rd century AD, the study of Bosporan coin production is of especial interest. The turbulent events in the Roman empire and the northern Black Sea region called forth by pressure from nomadic peoples led to parallel progressive debasement of the antoninianus and Bosporan stater. This book explores the composition of Bosporan silver coinage of the 3rd century AD, re-examining traditional interpretations in the light of an entirely new programme of analyses of the coins, and thereby illustratating the inadequacy of small earlier analytical studies. The results of the examination of ca. 3000 staters from quite a number of Bosporan hoards, conducted in 2016-21 by the methods of XRF, EPMA, NRCA, FIB-FESEM-EDX, SEM-EDX, MC-ICP-MS lead isotope analysis, etc., have enabled a comprehensive understanding of the nature of Bosporan silver coinage, especially silvering techniques, in the 3rd century. The data of microchemical and metallurgical studies of coins indicate that from AD 227/8 to 286/7 (with interruptions), staters from silver or those containing some amounts of silver (and occasionally some amount of gold) were struck on the Bosporus. During this period, debasement of the Bosporan stater was occurring, transforming it from an electrum coin into silver and billon one (issued for almost 40 years - until AD 267/8) and, finally (since AD 275), to a copper coin with silver content of about 4-6% and coated with silver.

This book is devoted to the only hoard of the earliest silver coins minted in the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait). It was hidden in a dwelling destroyed by fire in 480 BC during an enemy attack on Phanagoria. The widespread opinion in academic literature is that Panticapaeum was the first Bosporan city to mint coins - in the middle of the 6th century BC or a little later. But the discovery of a hoard whose deposition date is very well established enables us to date the beginnings of coinage on the shores of the Kerch Strait to the 490s BC. The authors propose that the coins were minted not in Panticapaeum but by a union of Greek cities under the umbrella of the temple of Aphrodite Ourania Apatouros, an extra muros temple, 'most famous' in the words of Strabo, already established in the 6th century BC in Phanagoria. With the coming to power of the Archaeanactids in Panticapaeum, about which Diodorus Siculus provides information, that became the dominant city of the Cimmerian Bosporus. It started to mint coins with the (Greek) inscription 'pan'.