The study considers quite rare, but, at the same time, historically important ancient coins - «Taman denarii». These barbaric imitations were introduced to the scientific revolution at the beginning of the XIX century. They are considered to be coins of the Goths. The head side of the coin contains the image of the Roman Emperor, the tail side depicts walking Mars. The very appearance of these coins is linked to the raids made by the allied Germanic tribes into the Roman territory during the «Scythian wars». However, we cannot accept this point of view. Based on the results of the iconographic analysis, we believe that these coins should not be considered replicas of the Roman denarii. The point is that the figure featured on its tail side is clearly a forward-facing image of Hercules. This could be proved both by the figure's position and the weapon which the deity is holding. At the same time the obverse image is not similar to the bust of the ruler of Rome. After all, it is inexcusably styled. And, in any case, it might have been created not only by the Germans. The idea and method of styling allows us to consider it to be Celtic. Apart from that, the prototype of the «Taman denarii» could is easily defined. This is the tetradrachm of Thasus which was traditionally copied from the Thracians. Furthermore, it should be taken into account that during the «Scythian wars» the Goths of the Black Sea Coast had little intention to advance money emission. After all, during the raids into the Roman lands they captured significant amounts of precious metals, including coins. In any case, the Goths could not have hammered billon and copper coins using the same dies -there was no economic sense. Based on the revealed facts, we conclude that the examined coins are not Gothic. It is likely that they were minted by Thracians, who, by the way, stopped maintaining contact with their fellow tribesmen from the Balkans and failed to establish ties with Rome and the Bosporan Kingdom. However, based on the results of archaeological research they were in active contact with the tribes of the Northern Black Sea coast. We hope that the findings of our research will be favorably received by the scientific community.
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