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Fabulous Coin - Ancient Greek Gold Stater Philip II of Macedon


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24 minutes ago, daca said:

I notice that what I labelled as a kantharos or cantharus is described as a tripod, which it undoubtedly is, but...

... can they be one and the same thing?

It does not necessarily follow that "my" coin was minted at Kolophon, as Numista does not state or explain.

Perhaps the tripod denotes having been produced at the Kolophon mint, but that is partly why I said I need to do some homework.

Similar coins were also minted at Pella, and probably other mints.

Chards

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5 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Perhaps the tripod denotes having been produced at the Kolophon mint, but that is partly why I said I need to do some homework.

Similar coins were also minted at Pella, and probably other mints.

Beneath the chariot and horse is the legend ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ (“Philippou”) in Greek letters. Immediately under the feet of the horses is a ritual tripod, in which offerings to the gods were often deposited and burnt. The tripod serves as a mint mark of sorts, identifiable with issues from Amphipolis, a city in Macedon, and Kolophon, a city in Ionia (now Western Turkey). This piece is most likely from Kolophon, as the Amphipolitan type features a thinner depiction of Apollo, an exergue line on the reverse and shows only one wheel on the biga.

source

https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/ancient-coin-profiles-greece-kingdom-macedon-gold-stater/

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7 minutes ago, daca said:

Beneath the chariot and horse is the legend ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ (“Philippou”) in Greek letters. Immediately under the feet of the horses is a ritual tripod, in which offerings to the gods were often deposited and burnt. The tripod serves as a mint mark of sorts, identifiable with issues from Amphipolis, a city in Macedon, and Kolophon, a city in Ionia (now Western Turkey). This piece is most likely from Kolophon, as the Amphipolitan type features a thinner depiction of Apollo, an exergue line on the reverse and shows only one wheel on the biga.

source

https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/ancient-coin-profiles-greece-kingdom-macedon-gold-stater/

Thank you.

Do you fancy a job as a researcher / numismatist?

😎

Chards

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@LawrenceChard  Spectacular coin minted in a period of political weakness.

If I am not mistaken, this coin was minted a few years after the death of Alexander the Great. A period of instability followed as his death as his (yet unborn) son was clearly unable to take the throne.  Those generals that helped Alexander build a vast empire (by the age of 30(ish) used their regional strongholds across the empire as bases from which to try and control the balance of the empire. I think wars between the parts of the empire lasted something like 20 or 30 years after his death.

It may be the case that the effort put into this coin (not sure if the image is of Apollo someone else or actually Alexander?) was partially to signal unity within the Macedonian empire? It would not be the first time a coin had been used as a tool for propaganda!

Please anyone with a better understanding of Greek / Macedonian history correct me if I am wrong.

Best

Dicker

Not my circus, not my monkeys

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6 hours ago, dicker said:

@LawrenceChard  Spectacular coin minted in a period of political weakness.

If I am not mistaken, this coin was minted a few years after the death of Alexander the Great. A period of instability followed as his death as his (yet unborn) son was clearly unable to take the throne.  Those generals that helped Alexander build a vast empire (by the age of 30(ish) used their regional strongholds across the empire as bases from which to try and control the balance of the empire. I think wars between the parts of the empire lasted something like 20 or 30 years after his death.

It may be the case that the effort put into this coin (not sure if the image is of Apollo someone else or actually Alexander?) was partially to signal unity within the Macedonian empire? It would not be the first time a coin had been used as a tool for propaganda!

Please anyone with a better understanding of Greek / Macedonian history correct me if I am wrong.

Best

Dicker

Posthumous issues of Philip II coins were issued under Alexander III The Great, so it is possible and indeed likely that this was one of the posthumous ones. It may be possible to tell, although, to my mind, it is not very important which, merely interesting.

My weakest academic subject was history, which is somewhat ironic as I find myself working with history on a daily basis. My next worse subject was geography!

The obverse image is Apollo, but it is known or believed that some of Alexander's features were included. This must of course only have been on later coins.

Some sources suggest that the charioteer is the emperor.

Most of this topic / thread reminds me and reinforces my view that numismatics, at any level, can be highly educational.

😎

Chards

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20 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

Most of this topic / thread reminds me and reinforces my view that numismatics, at any level, can be highly educational.

😎

Indeed. Who would have thought that ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ was his name, all I'm seeing is ANNOY. 😁

It's a cracking coin though nonetheless, the ancient coins always look good to my eyes (Greek and Roman, at least up to the early 2nd century AD for the latter) because they have great relief, and great relief allows for a detailed and complex design (streets ahead of what we were knocking out throughout most of our hammered period).

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3 hours ago, SidS said:

Indeed. Who would have thought that ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ was his name, all I'm seeing is ANNOY. 😁

It's a cracking coin though nonetheless, the ancient coins always look good to my eyes (Greek and Roman, at least up to the early 2nd century AD for the latter) because they have great relief, and great relief allows for a detailed and complex design (streets ahead of what we were knocking out throughout most of our hammered period).

That's a great relief!

😎

Chards

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Doug could not resist doing a "Focus Stack" on this coin:

"Focus Stacked using Picolay - Helicon Focus is better but licence expired. Picolay saves in 72 bit - no option to increase before stacking (no paid version either) Still worthwhile with Picolay. I've asked management to consider renewing Helicon now that we have 3 togs."

328BCAncientGreekGoldStaterPhilipIIKingsofMacedonCoinrev-focusstackedcrop.thumb.jpg.11b9ae836dbb31779a9a9b4ed9e97bd6.jpg

Although it looks like we need to renew our software license to use a better DoF program.

328BCAncientGreekGoldStaterPhilipIIKingsofMacedonCoinobv-focusstackedcrop.thumb.jpg.f5fb679403c4cfd562905c9b1d37383f.jpg

High relief indeed!

Especially as it is only about 19mm diameter (similar to a half sovereign).

😎

Chards

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