Nomos 7

KINGS of MACEDON. Philip II. 359-336 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 14.47 g 6), Amphipolis, 355-349/8. Laureate head of Zeus to right. Rev. ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ Philip II, wearing kausia and chlamys, raising his right hand in salute and riding horse walking to left; below horse’s foreleg, bow; below horse, club to left. Le Rider 19a (this coin). SNG ANS Berry 114. SNG Lockett 1411 (this coin). Rare. Beautifully toned and of very fine style. Struck in exceptionally high relief. An insignificant die break on the obverse, otherwise, good extremely fine.

From the Mieza collection, ex Nomos Fixed Price List 2009, 35, LHS 100, 23 April 2007, 216 and from the collection of R. C. Lockett, II, Glendining & Co., 12 February1958, 1324.

This is one of the earliest of Philip’s issues from Amphipolis and the reverse type is surely a representation of the King’s arrival on his accession to the throne. This possibility is supported by the fact that the die engraver produced a particularly well-made horseman on the reverse: he is clearly a representation of the king himself, in traditional Macedonian garb like the horsemen who appear on the oktadrachms of Alexander I and of the Bisaltai.