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Abstract

The paper is the first publication of a hoard of 157 Pantikapaion copper coins dated to the second quarter of the 3rd century BC, found in 1986 near the hamlet Usatova Balka in the outskirts of Anapa. The coins came in the Anapa Archaeological Museum. The assemblage belongs to the group of hoards of the period of the monetary crisis on the Bosporus, in which the basis is the Pantikapaion degraded copper coins with Pan/bow and arrow, ПАN (SNG BM I 900– 905). The 1986 hoard almost entirely consists of such coins, half of which belongs to the fi nal stage of degradation. The hoard was concealed, apparently, closer to the date of the Gorgippian great fi re in the mid – 3rd century BC. The catastrophe in Gorgippia led to the devastation of her chore, ruining of some estates, and the concealment of hoards including those two from Hellenistic settlements near the hamlet of Usatova Balka.

Keywords

Bosporus, Gorgippia, Usatova Balka, coin hoards, monetary circulation, monetary crisis of the 3rd century BC, Anapa Archaeological Museum

Mikhail G. Abramzon

Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Magnitogorsk, Russia

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Andrey M. Novichikhin

Anapa Archaeological Museum, Anapa, Russia

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