Transfer of the Roman Mint

Amandry (1993) notes that the Mint which was moved to Cyprus in 76 CE was moved back to Antioch in 80 CE. He suggests an earthquake in 78 CE was the reason for the move back to Antioch noting that the scarcity of coins produced in the 10th year of Vespasian’s reign (78/79 CE), the absence of coins from the first year of Titus’ reign (79/80 CE), and the reappearance of coins in the second year of Titus’ reign (80/81 CE) was likely due to interrupted production after the earthquake. Vespasian's reign ended when he died on 24 June 79 CE. Based on Amandry (1993), this would place the earthquake sometime in the year prior to 24 June 79 CE (i.e., June 78 - June 79 CE).

Antonopoulos (1980) and later Ambraseys (2009) present a less credible argument that the Romans transferred their mint to Cyprus in 76 CE¹ as part of a probable relief effort to support earthquake and tsunami survivors. They opine that this supports a 76 CE rather than a 77 CE date for the earthquake since if the earthquake occurred in 77 CE, there was no apparent reason to transfer the mint in 76 CE.

Footnotes

1 the first coins minted were dated to July 76 CE, August 77 CE and September 78 CE according to Antonopoulos (1980). Antonopoulos (1980) cites Hill (1940:234) for this but does not list Hill in his references. In all likelihood the reference is Hill, G. F. (1905). "A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum: Cyprus." Journal of Hellenic Studies 25: 188. Sometimes this reference is listed as Hill (1904) suggesting that Antonopoulos made a typographic error transposing the 4 and 0 to arrive at Hill (1940) instead of Hill (1904).