Numismatics

Documents of archaeologically “unfortunate” cities

Because the cities of Çukurova — Adana, Tarsus, Mersin — were always rebuilt on the same spot, their ancient layers lie beneath the modern town. Tahberer calls this “archaeologically unfortunate” and finds the remedy in coins: they are the soundest epigraphic documents of a city's religious and cultural life. “Adana in Light of its Ancient Coinage” (2001) was the first book of that approach; “An Unpublished Autonomous Coin of Adana” (2003) shows how a single bronze from his own collection — turreted Tyche / Nike with a wreath — is dated through comparison of style and monograms.

SNG Tahberer – Cilicia

Prepared in the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum tradition, the two-volume catalogue brings together some 1,500 coins of the Greco-Roman mints of Cilicia on 114 plates. Part 1 (2012, updated 2016) and the Part 2 Catalogue (2014) were published openly on Academia; the Turkish manual “Antik Kilikia Sikkeleri” tells the same material city by city.

Eastern Mediterranean Hoard (2021–)

The 2019–2021 find he calls “the hoard of the century” is being published mint by mint: Tarsos (2021), Mallos (2022), Soloi (2022), Holmoi–Ura–Kelenderis (2024), Side (2025) and Aspendos (2026). Each part documents previously unknown die links and new types. His 2026 study of the Nisibis hoard examines 230 coins of Philip I — and makes a proposal along the way: to call a coin, in Turkish, a “geçer”.

Sikkeloji

The nine-part Turkish “Sikkeloji” seminar series of 2021 tells the story of ancient numismatics in his own language, from pre-coinage economies to the Late Roman period, with separate sessions on forgery, the little-known coins of Adana and the Macedonian kingdoms — designed as proof that numismatics can be done in Turkish too.