Ancients MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Philip II (359-336 BC). AV stater

Ancients
MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Philip II (359-336 BC). AV stater (18mm, 8.62 gm, 2h). NGC Choice MS★ 5/5 - 5/5. Posthumous issue of Pella, ca. 323/2-315, BC. Laureate head of Apollo right / Charioteer driving galloping biga right, trident head and Σ below horse's forelegs, ΦIΛIΠΠOY in exergue. Le Rider 580. SNG ANS 193. Approaching perfection, this stater is nicely centered and cleanly struck on both sides, exhibiting considerable detail and lustrous fields.

In 356 BC, three years after coming to power, the Macedonian King Philip II secured control of the gold and silver mines in the hinterlands of Amphipolis. This windfall immediately strengthened his hand in dealing with the other Greek city-states. His coinage in gold commenced about 345 BC and was the first truly extensive Greek coinage in that metal. The Persians had been striking gold darics for nearly two centuries, but Philip's new gold coin was weightier and more pleasing to the Greek eye, with a handsome youthful head of Apollo on the obverse and a racing chariot on the reverse, recalling another of his Olympic victories. Philip's gold drew tens of thousands of hearty men from the hinterlands of northern Greece into service in his well-trained army, enabling him to secure control of the nearly the entire mainland and plan the conquest of Persia eventually carried out by his son, Alexander III the Great. Gold staters of his design continued to be struck long after his assassination in 336 BC. As late as the third century AD, gold coins of any type were still casually referred to as "Philips."

HID02901242017

Estimate: 8000-10000 USD