The Tetradrachma Hoard of Side in the Burdur Museum

Abstract

The hoard, comprising 33 coins, was found in 1995 at the village of Çeltek in the Yeşilova district of Burdur province; it was subsequently acquired by purchase by the Burdur Museum. The find-spot lies on the ancient regions of Pisidia and Phrygia All of the coins are silver tetradrachms of the Side mint with an average weight of 16.71 g., which is unsually high. Six specimens bear countermarks comprising a boj in its case and the intial letter of the city that made the countermark. Such countermarks, known as 'cistophoric countermarks' are associated with cities that were controlled by the Kingdom of Pergamum. The present hoard includes clear examples for Pergamum, Apameia and Sardis, and two other countermarks probably represent Ephesus and Synnada, while one further type remians unassigned. Scholarly opinion is divided about when such contuermarks were made on the coins of Side; one view favorus a date after 166 BC, another attributes them to the period beginning in 188 BC. The hoard contains 12 different magistrates' names, one of which is previously unrecorded. According to the tables compiled by Prefossor Leschorn, these belong to the first series of Sidetan tetradrachms, starting in 205 BC. The conis may thus be dated to between 205 and 190 BC but remained in circulation for some time. Deposition connat be dated earlier than c. 178 BC and, if the later dating of the countermarks is followed, even as late as the mid-second century BC.