Barbarian Imitations of Bosporan Staters and Roman Denarii from Phanagoria

Two groups of barbarian imitations circulated together with the original Bosporan staters and a small number of Roman coins in the currency of Phanagoria, as well as the Bosporan Kingdom as a whole. The first group consists of imitations of Thothorses and Rhescuporis VI, which were presumably produced by tribes in the Western Kuban region. The second group is composed of the North Caucasian imitations of Roman denarii of the walking Mars type. In the mid-3rd to first half 4th century AD, such coins arrived from the southeastern periphery of the Bosporan Kingdom, where they were minted by the Sarmatian-Alans. The paper deals with new finds of imitations from 2008‒2018 excavations at Phanagoria.