Borysthenes
[IACP 690]

Triton XVI, Lot: 1. Estimate $3000. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SKYTHIA, Borysthenes. Circa 550-500 BC. Cast Æ (53mm, 49.77 g, 12h). Large tunny head right; [A to left], M or horizontal Σ at right / Three arrows left. Solovyov fig. 3, 3 (Hermitage, inv. B78.216) = A. Trofimova, Greeks on the Black Sea: Ancient Art from the Hermitage (Los Angeles, 2007), p. 86, 11. Fine, brown patina, areas of roughness on obverse. Extremely rare, the third known (the others in the Hermitage and a private collection).

From the Alex Shubs Collection.

Borysthenes was a Milesian settlement established circa 600 BC near the confluence of the Hypanis and Borysthenes rivers. There is an ongoing debate about the exact location of the settlement, with some scholars placing it on Berezan, while others collocate it with site of Olbia. It was the first of the Greek cities of the northern Black Sea to issue a coinage of its own, in the second half of the sixth century BC, consisting of large triangular and trapezoidal cast bronzes featuring arrows or arrowheads on one side and a tunny fish (or its head) on the other. These large coins were soon supplemented with smaller cast bronzes in the shape of arrowheads. These arrowheads were produced for a century or more, and, over time, evolved from plain biface arrowheads into a form with an arrowhead on just one side and a dolphin on the other. In his 1986 study of this ‘arrowhead money,’ V.A. Anokhin distinguished four basic types, although many more varieties have appeared since that time. Most numismatists, however, view the ‘arrowhead money’ as proto-money, and typically do not include these in publications of coinage from this region (SNG BM Black Sea, for example, contains none). The reason that this coinage was produced is not certain, but most scholars agree that it comprised a local trade coinage among the Greek settlements along the western and northwestern Black Sea coast, where they have been found in many excavations and hoards. It is also apparent that these cast arrowheads replaced the use of actual military arrowheads that were modified for trade by bending down the point and filling the empty orifice where the shaft had been attached with lead. Trade among these poleis also included a precious metal coinage at this time as well, but hoards and excavations have shown that they relied upon the bountiful electrum issues of Kyzikos for this purpose. The use of the tunny on the early bronzes of Borysthenes is probably related to its presence on the electrum coinage of Kyzikos, and some studies have suggested that the weights of the bronze coinage may be relative to the Phocaic standard that was used at Kyzikos. By the end of the sixth century, there was certainly a robust economy between Borysthenes and the other cities in the region, as significant numbers of these arrowhead coins have been found in hoards across the western Black Sea coast. Political and military upheavals in the fifth century, however, resulted in a reduction of the population of Borysthenes, while the population and prosperity of Olbia grew. In the third quarter of the fifth century, Borysthenes was finally absorbed into the territory controlled by Olbia, becoming the emporion of the latter, and this event marked the end of its coinage.

From the consignor: During my participation in archeological digging in Berezan & Olbia, when I was 11-14 years old, we were often digging out many pieces of Greek ceramic from the 6th-5th centuries BC decorated with fish (tunny) heads and arrows. Later, I read in D.B. Shelov, Coins of Bosporos (Moscow, 1956), that salted fish and grains were a primary trade product between the Black Sea coast and cities of Greece. At the same time, bronze arrows were also important products of trade between Greek settlers and Skythians.

The Borysthenes, which should be, in accordance with archeological literature, understood as Berezan, was founded around 645/644 BC (Eusebius, Chron. Can. II.88). Most of the cities of the northern and western Black Sea region were founded by settlers from Ionia. This is why almost in all of these cities one could find a cult of Apollo the Healer. Attributes of such a cult were arrows and arrow heads (A.F. Losev, Ancient Mythology in Their Historical Development [Moscow, 1957], p. 410). So this explains the appearance of bronze arrowheads in 7th-6th centuries BC as votive donations to the temple of Apollo Iatros. The bronze dolphins and tunny heads were attributes of another cult, Apollo Delphinios, the temple of which was found during archeological excavations in Olbia. Its construction is dated to the 3rd quarter of the 6th century BC (V.P. Yailenko, Greek Colonization, VII-III Centuries BC [Moscow, 1982]; and V.P. Yailenko, To the Age & Translation of the Berezan Letter to Achillodoros [Moscow, 1974], pp. 133–52). Bronze dolphins were found in the temple and in the surrounding houses, which attest to its use as proto-money.

While the plain arrowheads and dolphins are quite plentiful today, the presence of any letters or symbols (including slanted “nerves” emanating from the central spines) only occurs in roughly 1 out of every 10,000 examples. Therefore, any such examples are extremely rare. This is attested by the rarity of examples with letters or symbols present in the major collections: for instance, there are only 4 in the British Museum, 3 in Berlin, and about 14 in the Hermitage.

Sometime after Olbia absorbed Borysthenes, the proto-coinage of cast arrowheads, tunny heads, and dolphins were eventually replaced by the large cast asses with the legend APIX. This legend first appears on the latest issue of dolphins (and possibly arrowheads - see Lot 20, below), as APIXO, with the O equating to the first letter of the city name, Olbia. The APIX is more uncertain. It is quite possible that the AP and IX are abbreviations of two Greek words, ΑPδις (= arrowhead) and IXθυς (= fish), respectively. This legend, therefore, would reinforce that this new coinage of asses was the replacement for the previous “proto-coinage” of arrowhead and dolphin money. The advent of the ases is thought to be circa 437–410 BC, following the Athenian expedition of Perikles to the region, whereupon Olbia became a member of the Delian League.

The Alex Shubs Collection of Coins of the Northwestern Black Sea

Alex’s 40 years of collecting ancient coins began when he was merely a boy of 11 years, when his father gave him the autobiography of the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. From that moment, Alex became enamored with archaeology and ancient history. At the time, his family was living in Kiev, where the Institute of Archeology of the Ukrainian Academy of Science was located. The Institute held special after-school classes for children who were interested in ancient history and archaeology, and one of the best archaeologists at that time, Valery Dudkin, was an instructor. By the following summer, Alex and his classmates, alongside students from Moscow University, were conducting a dig at the site of ancient Olbia along the Black Sea in the Crimea. Thereafter, for three months every other summer until the completion of his schooling, Alex and his classmates were involved in archaeological expeditions with their teacher. In addition to the dig at Olbia, Alex participated in digs in the Tauric Chersonesos, Karkinitis, Pantikapaion, and Nymphaion. Of course, ancient coins were found by Alex during these summer digs. The first coin he found was at his first site, Olbia; it was a 4th century BC bronze with the head of the river god Borysthenes (the Dneiper River was known as the Borysthenes to the Olbians). The coin was in excellent condition, and so beautiful to the young boy that he even slept with it under his pillow over the following days. It was the first coin that Alex obtained for his collection, where it remains to this day.

Beside this archaeological experience, one other event in Alex’s youth was a motivating factor in his desire to collect ancient coins. When he was 13 years old, Alex visited the coin cabinet of the Hermitage Museum, which holds the greatest collection of ancient Greek coins of the Black Sea area. While amazed by the entire display, he was particularly captivated by the 5th-4th century bronze coins of Theodoseia, which, at that time, were of even greater rarity than today (though they are still quite rare, with only 20-30 pieces are known). On the reverse of these coins was the forepart of a bull, but the obverse was never displayed. The young Alex, enamored with the beauty of their reverse, dearly wished to see what the obverse depicted, and the simple pictures he found in books failed to assuage his desire to view one of these in his hand. Over the years of his collecting, Alex managed to obtain four early bronzes of Theodoseia for his collection, one of which is of the extremely rare type he saw at the Hermitage. Finally having the coin in-hand, Alex spent three hours just staring at the head of Hera on the obverse.

Collecting coins was not new to Alex’s family; his father and grandfather both collected, but concentrated on issues of Imperial Russia. Eventually, their collections were passed on to Alex, who exchanged the (then-inexpensive) Russian coins for ancient Black Sea Greek and Roman coins. He soon built a quite impressive collection of ancient coins.

In 1988, at age 28, and holding a degree in mechanical engineering, Alex moved to the US and opened his own engineering firm a couple of years later. His company soon developed into an international firm, giving him the opportunity to travel throughout Europe, where he would acquire new coins for his growing collection. By the 1990s, with huge hoards of material pouring out of eastern Europe, Alex was in a position to acquire many very rare and desirable coins.

The first portion of his collection, containing the coinage of the Cimmerian Bosporos and Kings of Bosporos, was sold in Classical Numismatic Group 84 on 5 May 2010, and the concurrent Electronic Auction 233. That collection of coins from the Northeastern Black Sea mints was extraordinarily diverse, with numerous rarities not often seen in the marketplace. CNG is proud to now offer his complimentary collection of coinage from the Northwestern Black Sea mints, which is equally diverse in its selection of rare and interesting types. Many of these coins have been unavailable in the marketplace, and some have been used as plate coins in publications. No comprehensive collection of these coins have ever appeared at auction.

Alex has provided personal notes throughout the collection, and they appear in italics following the relevant lots.

A Note on Dating, References, and Rarity

The dating of much of the coinage from this region is not secure, and often the subject of pure speculation. The various references often diverge on their dating schemes, sometimes to a great extent for particular coin series. For the purpose of consistency, this collection generally follows the 2011 edition of Anokhin’s catalog of coins of the northern Black Sea (see Anokhin in the bibliography below). Unfortunately, this catalog is not yet widely available in the West, nor are many of the primary references that are necessary for an understanding of the coinage of this region. For this reason, each lot will include references to SNG BM Black Sea, SNG Pushkin, SNG Stancomb, and the two volumes of the Sutzu collection, which are the primary specialized collections of this coinage that are widely available. Regarding the rarity of the coins, ascertaining the objective data to quantify their rarity is difficult, as there is so little published. At the same time, the scarcity of this type of coinage in most published collections may be the result of a bias against lower grade coins, as most of these issues commonly occur in average to low grade. In any event, Alex is intimately familiar with the existence of examples in both public and private collections, and the rarity ratings on the coins are based on his observations.