DIONYSOPOLIS in MOESIA INFERIOR 1-2CenAD Demeter Ancient Greek Coin Rare i50359

Item: i50359

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of
Dionysopolis
in
Moesia Inferior
Pseudo-autonomous issue

Bronze 22mm (5.38 grams) Struck 1st-2nd centuries A.D.

Reference Draganov, Bronze 37; AMNG I 371
Veiled head of Demeter right; torch before.
ΔION/YCOΠ/OΛEI in three lines within grain ear wreath.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In
Greek mythology
,
Demeter was the goddess
of the harvest, who presided over
grains
, the
fertility
of the earth, the
seasons
(personified by the
Hours
), and the
harvest
. One of her surnames is Sito (σίτος:
wheat) as the giver of food or corn. Though Demeter is often described simply as
the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of
marriage
, the
sacred law
, and the cycle of
life and death
. She and her daughter
Persephone
were the central figures of the
Eleusinian Mysteries
that also predated the
Olympian pantheon.

Her
Roman
cognate is
Ceres
.

Balchik (Bulgarian:
Балчик)
is a

Black Sea coastal

town
and seaside resort in the

Southern Dobruja area of northeastern
Bulgaria.
It is located in
Dobrich

Oblast
and is 42 km northeast of Varna
. The town sprawls scenically along hilly
terraces descending from the Dobruja
plateau to the sea.

The
Ionian

ancient Greek colony of Krounoi in
Moesia
(renamed as Dionysopolis, after the discovery of a statue of
Dionysus
in the sea ), later a
Greek
–Byzantine
fortress, stood on the site of an older
Thracian
settlement. Under the

Ottoman Empire, the town came to be known with its present name,
which perhaps derived from a Gagauz
word meaning “small town”. Another
opinion is that its actual name derived from
Balik
‘s name.

After the liberation of Bulgaria
, Balchik developed as
centre of a rich agricultural region, wheat-exporting port, and district (okoliya)
town, and later, as a major tourist destination with the beachfront resort of
Albena
to its south. The ethnic composition gradually changed from mostly Gagauz and
Tatar/Turkish
to predominantly Bulgarian. According to an estimate by Bulgarian historian
Rayna Gavrilova the Bulgarian population before 1878 was only around 10%.
Currently the municipality (the town plus 22 villages) is 69.2% Bulgarian, 16.2%
Turkish minority and 12.3% Romani. An
Ottoman
mosque remains to serve the Muslim
minority.

After the Second Balkan War, in 1913, Balchick became part of The Kingdom of
Romania. The town was regained by Bulgaria during World War I (1916–1919), but
Romania restored its authority when the hostilities in region ceased. In 1940,
just before outbreak of World War II in the region, Balchik was ceded by Romania
to Bulgaria by the terms of the
Craiova Treaty
.

During
Romania‘s administration, the

Balchik Palace was the favourite summer residence of
Queen Marie
of Romania and her immediate
family. The town is the site of Marie’s Oriental villa, the place where her
heart was kept, in accordance with her last wishes, until 1940 (when the

Treaty of Craiova awarded the region back to Bulgaria). It was then
moved to Bran Castle, in central Romania. Today, the Balchik Palace and the
adjacent Balchik Botanical Garden are the town’s most popular landmarks.
Currently, three 18-hole golf
courses are being developed around town,
two designed by Gary Player
and one by
Ian
Woosnam.

During the inter-war period, Balchik was also a favourite destination for
Romanian avant-garde painters, lending his name to an informal school of
post-impressionist painters – the Balchik School of Painting – which is central
in the development of Romanian 20th century painting. Many works of the artists
composing the group depict the town’s houses and the exotic Tatar inhabitants,
as well as the sea.