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The Coinage of Nicopolis ad Mestum
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The subject of the present study is the coinage of the Roman provincial city of Nicopolis ad Mestum. It is one of the eight peregrinal cities on the territory of today's Bulgaria that issued coins during the Roman era. Realized in a very short period of eleven months (starting after 4 February 211 AD and ending by 26 December 211 AD), the coinage of Nicopolis ad Mestum is distinguished by its specificity and attractiveness. Although one of the most modest in the province of Thrace, this coinage finds its place in the well-thought-out Roman coinage system.
A large number of publications by Bulgarian and foreign authors are devoted to the coins of Nicopolis ad Mestum. Already in 1779, the founder of scientific numismatics, J. Eckhel, described and published a coin of Geta-August issued in Nicopolis ad Mestum. Almost all publications published until 1998, in which coins of Nicopolis of Mestum are described and/or commented on, have been strictly collected and systematized in alphabetical order in the bibliographic work of the German researcher E. Schӧnert-Geiss, dedicated to the coinage of the cities of Thrace and Mysia. In 2003, the study of H. Komnick, examining the coinage of Nicopolis ad Mestum, was published. This study is the first attempt to present a more complete picture of the city's coinage, based on a significant part of the numismatic material available until then. Some of Komnick's conclusions are valid, others should have been corrected long ago. It is high time to solve the main problems of urban coinage and prepare a numismatic corpus according to the modern requirements of the science of Numismatics. In the last two decades, two catalogs of popular science and commercial nature have been printed, as well as publications in which new reverse types of the city's coins were promulgated.
Unfortunately, these publications cannot be used to their full potential, as they contain combinations between obverse stamps of one co-emperor and reverse stamps of the other, or vice versa; with one obverse stamp (of the same specimen) several reverse types are displayed, etc. With this way of working, we cannot be sure that all the coins described in them actually exist. Therefore, these catalogs should be accepted with reservations, especially by specialists, since the inaccuracies admitted in them are carried over to subsequent publications related to the Roman pilgrimage city of Nicopolis ad Mestum. Articles dealing with the founding date of the city of Nicopolis ad Mestum were also published; with the religious life in it; with the name and "Founder" of the city; about the ethnic characteristics of its population; some archaeological finds from the city and its surroundings. A study dedicated to: "Nikopolis ad Nestum and its urban territory during the Roman and early Byzantine eras (1st–6th centuries) was also published“. Coins issued in Nikopolis ad Mestum from the numismatic funds of some of the museums in Bulgaria were also promulgated. A few online catalogs have also appeared (with very few specimens), but there is still a lack of scholarly work clarifying all the major issues of urban coinage. The limited numismatic material available to the authors is the reason for the unpretentious chronological systematization and partial display of the coins described in their publications.
The new numismatic material discovered in the period 2007–2022, as well as the results of the archaeological discoveries conducted in recent years, necessitate the need for a new, in-depth and comprehensive study of this enigmatic coinage. With the presented work, which is a classic study of a provincial city coinage, we have tried to correct the inaccuracies accumulated over the years and to solve the main problems of the Nicopolis ad Mestum coinage. The main aspects of urban coinage are covered: reverse iconographic types, coin legends, metric parameters and denominations, relationships between mint stamps and chronology of issues, forgeries. An in-depth comparative analysis of the place occupied by Nicopolis ad Mestum in the system of the Roman provincial coinage in Thrace was also made. The results obtained from the study of the new numismatic material are radically different from the previous ones regarding all issues of coin production in Nicopolis ad Mestum. The following tasks are solved in the relevant chapters and paragraphs:
─ For the first time, the palaeographic and orthographic features of the obverse and reverse legends of the coins of Nicopolis ad Mestum are thoroughly studied and systematized according to spelling variants.
─ It was established how many denominations were issued and circulated in parallel in the local economy during the period of operation of the city mint;
─ The exact number of the obverse and reverse stamps of the coins included in the study was determined and the relationships between them were established;
─ The common reverse stamps with which coins were issued synchronously for the two co-emperors have been identified;
─ Four forgeries of coins issued in Nicopolis ad Mestum were also identified, analyzed and correctly displayed;
─ In the catalog of the monograph, the studied coins are systematized by chronology, their denominations, obverse and reverse stamp numbers, their full metric parameters, the position of the stamps relative to the coin core, the current location of each specimen and the publication in which it was first indicated mention the relevant coin type.
All the specimens included in the present study are shown in the catalog with correct photographs in real size, and not as was done until now - only on the reverse stamps (a way that makes working with the catalog difficult and predisposes to manipulations). All the differentiated obverse and reverse stamps of the studied coins engraved for the two co-emperors and their mother are illustrated. The collected, analyzed and systematized numismatic material, correctly put into scientific use, can serve as a solid base for future studies related to the political, cultural and economic development of Nicopolis ad Mestum during the Roman era.
Yanislav Tachev
Table of contents
Preface
Chapter I. Backround historicar notes on Nicopolis ad Mestum
Chapter II. Reverse types
Chapter III. Coins legends
Chapter IV. Metric data and denominations
Chapter V. Die–links and comments on the issues
Chapter VI. Counterfeits
Chapter VII. Nicopolis ad Mestum in the Roman provincial coinage system in Thrace
Catalogue
Bibliography
Summary in Bulgarian
| Details | |
| Publisher | Yanislav Tachev |
| Language | English with a summary in Bulgarian |
| Pages | 152 |
| Illustrations | b/w figures |
| Binding | hardback |
| ISBN | 978-619-91692-5-4 |
| Creation date | 2024 |
| Size | 21 x 29 cm |
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