KINGS of MACEDON. Philip II. 359-336 BC. Æ Unit (16mm, 6.49 g, 9h). Uncertain mint in Macedon. Diademed head of Apollo right / Youth on horseback riding right; prow below. SNG ANS 854. Good VF, dark brown patina, obverse struck slightly off center.
The obverse of this coin features the head of the god Apollo, who became the tutelary deity of Philip II in 353 BC during the Third Sacred War. Vowing he would fight on behalf of the god, whose sacred Treasury at Delphi had been stolen, precipitating the conflict, he used the war as an opportunity to expand his control in Greece. The rider on the reverse, similar to the reverse of his tetradrachms, ostensibly extolls his victory in the horse race at Olympia in 356 BC. However, the reverse also recalls the earlier Macedonian royal types, possibly an attempt to emphasize his Macedonian ancestry.
