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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
164, Lot: 35. Estimate $300.
Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Amphipolis. Circa 370-369 BC. AR Drachm (16mm, 2.70 g). Head of Apollo facing slightly right, wearing laurel wreath / Torch within linear square. Lorber 52 (O1/R1); SNG Copenhagen 38 (same dies). Fine, heavy porosity, flan crack. Still rare.



Lorber attributes the first gold and silver coinage of Amphipolis to the brief period between 371 and 354 BC, as Amphipolis was defending its autonomy against first the Athenians and then the Macedonians of Philip II. The city had been founded by Athenians in 437 BC as a Thracian outpost to secure trade routes to the north, especially to the vital Pangaean mining district. However, Amphipolis was captured by the Spartan general Brasidas in 424, and despite sporadic attempts by Athens to retake its erstwhile colony the city retained its independence. Sparta agreed to withdraw from the city in 370, and Amphipolis began striking its remarkable facing head tetradrachms and fractions to pay for its defense. Lorber identifies annual issues starting from 371, noting that the "earliest Amphipolitan facing heads are executed in a style of great power and beauty, with new types created through motivic manipulation and other minor alterations," drawing upon specific prototypes in sculpture and decorative arts. This remarkable series came to an end a few years after Philip took the city in 357 BC.