Coin issued under Mithradates, from Bosporan Kingdom near Krim peninsula of modern day Ukraine.

Nicest I have seen of these. Usually the legends are illegible.

Beautiful ancient, but what is that dead animal thing on the reverse

Bad wolf be gone!!!

But yea, suprisingly nice coin there O_O

Beautifully preserved. What year did this come from?

If Mithradites VI, then about 88 BC, give or take. You can read a whole big bunch about him because he was pretty famous in his time and just about anyone who collects ancients comes into contact with his life sooner or later.

Mithradites VI was actually a "foreign" Greek who rallied the Greeks against the Rome. Rome was technically a republic, but had been acting very imperial for nearly 100 years. From about 180 BC or so, Rome got involved in the wars between the descendents of Alexander's generals, the Seleukids of Syria, the Ptolemies of Egypt, and the hometown Macedonians. Rome conquered Macedon in 168 BC. Rome sacked Corinth in 146 BC. This brought thousands of Greek slaves to Rome. "Enslaved, Greece enslaved her master," in the words of Horace. Rome became a bilingual empire. In 133 BC, the town of Pergamon in Asia Minor was willed to the Roman Senate by its last Greek king. That was significant on several grounds. For one thing, the town was founded by Philetairos, a general of Alexander, who took off with about the modern equivalent of $3 BILLION from the military treasury. We have the word "parchment" from Pergamon. By 88 BC, Rome had for no good reason crushed Rhodes, which had been a fulcrum for the balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean.

The point of all that is that the Greeks of Greece and Asia were ripe for revolt when Mithradates VI came along. His string of victories came to an end. Oddly enough, though, he actually survived and died in (ahem) "retirement" in his own lands.

Interesting, thank you. Is that a sacrified wolf on the reverse, and do you know what the "1B" like characters mean?

Well preserved coin for the age and great history lesson from Mike.

Wow, that is indeed one of the best of local coinages I've seen.

What's the metal?