Abstract
The article deals with to the problem of determining the issuing authorities of the socalled “Sindi” coinage. Many scholars consider it to be coinage of the Sindi tribe. These include S.A. Kovalenko, who suggests in his article that the reason for minting coins is the desire of the Sindi kings to make a profit from striking. At the same time, in his opinion, electrum coins of some Asia Minor mints (Cyzicus, Phocaea) were used as metal for it, from which silver was obtained. This point of view is refuted by chemical analyzes of the composition of metals in the “Sindi” coin. Moreover, it confl icts with some important facts. First of all, it should be noted that the coin was minted in Sindike, which belonged to the Greek cities that were located in this territory. The inscription of Theopropides from Nymphaeum definitely confirms this. A very important point is that among the so-called “Sindi” coins there is a type of griffin sitting in front of a grain that is directly related to Phanagoria. This fact alone refutes the opinion of the coin as belonging to the Sindi. To this it should also be added that the Sindi coinage was of a completely Greek nature. The combination of various facts indicates that in the 5th century BC on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus there was a union of the Greek poleis of Sindike. It was this union that minted coins at the time of Panticapaean aggression against them to finance military actions.
Keywords
Sindike, Sindi, coinage.
Vladimir D. Kuznetsov
Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;
State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve “Phanagoria”
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