Apollonia Prepares for War

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 256. Estimate $250.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $345. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Apollonia Pontika. Mid-late 4th century BC. AR Drachm (3.24 g, 7h). Facing gorgoneion / Upright anchor; A and crayfish flanking. SNG BM Black Sea 159; SNG Copenhagen 456. Good VF, toned.

The 5th and 4th century BC coinage of Apollonia Pontika reflects that city’s origins: commercial wealth and maritime power. The gorgon was a popular apotropaic device, seen as warding off evil; thus a number of ancient Greek cities adopted it as a coin design. The anchor and the crayfish attest to the city’s reliance on maritime commerce for its economy, and the anchor depicted on these coins is actually one of the first anchors of modern design rendered in Greek art.

In 342/1 BC, Philip II attacked and conquered Apollonia as well as other towns in Thrace, thereby incorporating these areas into the Macedonian realm. These silver drachms of Apollonia were struck in the period during the military buildup prior to Philip’s conquest, when the city needed to produce coinage to finance its defense against the Macedonian invasion. Philip’s conquest, however, brought a close to the city’s autonomous silver coinage, as no issue subsequent to this one was ever minted.