The Silver and Gold Coins of the Alexander Type in the West Pontic Area in the 3rd Century Bc – “Peace-Money”, “Protection Money” or Something Else

The so-called posthumous tetradrachms of the Alexander type, struck in the ancient city of Cabyle in the interior of Thrace, as well as in most cities along the western Black Sea coast in the 3 rd century BC, have always been a favourite topic of research. In 1991, the British numismatist Martin Price, in his fundamental work on the Alexander type coinages, presenting too brief overview of the silver and gold coins minted in the cities in the West Pontic area, has made the assumption that all these tetradrachms along with the gold staters struck simultaneously, were minted as "peace-money" intended to redeem the peace of those cities from the neighbouring tribes in the interior of Thrace, or as "protection money paid to the Gauls" intended for ransom to the Celtic Kingdom in Thrace. All modern authors who have written on this topic support these hypotheses. Although it has long ago been noticed the extremely high stylistic similarity between the tetradrachms of the ruler Kavaros minted at Cabyle and the tetradrachms minted in the West Pontic cities in the 3 rd century BC, as almost all have used for these coins the term "Kavaros style", introduced by Martin Price, nevertheless these tetradrachms have always been interpreted as autonomous civic coins. However, a completely new interpretation of the nature of these coins is presented here – that all they were in fact lifetime royal issues of the ruler Kavaros in Thrace.