Heracleia Sintica was accidentally discovered in 2001 at the foot of an extinct volcano near modern-day Rupite, Bulgaria, (Thracian Macedonia), south of the River Struma. A Latin inscription of an imperial appeal to the citizens of Heracleia Sintica discovered at the site ended the years-long argument between Greece and Bulgaria about where Heraclea Sintica actually was. Known since ancient times for its mineral spring. The entire bronze series of Heraclea Sintica must be dated to ca. AD 110/115–130.
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| SNG Cop 185 | Heracleia Sintica, 1st century BC. AE15, Time of Trajan. 3.3 gr. HEΡAKΛEΩTΩN, Macedonian shield / EΠI CTΡ-YMONI above and beneath club. SNG Cop 185; AMNG III/2, 1. Paunov Type A. | Text | Image |
| SNG Cop 185 (2) | Heracleia Sintica, 1st century BC. AE15, Time of Trajan. 3.10 gr. HEΡAKΛEΩTΩN, Macedonian shield / EΠI CTΡ-YMONI above and beneath club. SNG Cop 185; AMNG III/2, 1. Paunov Type B. | Text | Image |
| The Thracian expert Evgeni I. Paunov describes three different versions of this coin:
Type A: Obv: Carefully inscribed legend with dots separating letters; shield ornamented with three large roundels set in a triangle, large dots in their centres, circles of dots between fields / Rev: Legend clockwise around the club, bold dots of border (7 specimens known). Type B: Obv: Careless lettering, no separating dots, shield ornamented with three smaller roundels, between them multiple dots / Rev: Legend in two straight lines on either side of club, sometimes no border of dots. (10 specimens known). Type C: Obverse: As B, but shield with four roundels – three on the side and one in the middle, line border of shield / Rev: as B (1 specimen known). Some of the Heraclean coinage was overstruck on foreign coins, but the exact type or issuer of the host coins cannot be identified. | |||
