196, Lot: 14. Estimate $300. Sold for $377. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Philip V. 221-179 BC. AR Drachm (18mm, 4.19 g, 11h). Pella or Amphipolis mint; Zoilos, mintmaster. Struck circa 184-179 BC. Diademed head right / Club; monogram above, two monograms below; all within oak wreath, star to outer left. Mamroth, Philip 32; SNG München -; SNG Alpha Bank -; Pozzi 975 (same obv. die). VF, toned. Rare denomination.

Ex K.L. Chapman Collection; Spink Numismatic Circular LXVIII.2 (February, 1960), no. 921.

This coin is from the third, and final, phase of Philip V's coinage. In this phase, his portrait returns to the obverse of his coins, which was temporarily replaced in the second phase by the portrait of the hero Perseus at the center of a Macedonian shield. Philip’s coinage was the first to feature a Macedonian royal portrait since the issues of his great-grandfather Demetrios I Poliorketes in the 290s BC. While the style of portraiture in Macedonian coinage was traditionally sub-par in comparison with those of Asia Minor, these portraits of Philip are among the most beautiful Hellenistic portraits, obviously engraved by master celators. The reverse of his coins in this phase retains the new reverse introduced in the second phase, a club within an oak wreath. The club is that of Herakles, the patron of the Macedonian dynasty, and the wreath is emblematic of royal power. Philip's coinage was among the first in the early 2nd century to bear an oak wreath on the reverse, which became "vogue" on coins by the 160s-150s BC, appearing on many civic issues throughout Greece and Asia Minor (known as 'stephanophoric' coinage). Three monograms appear on these reverses, with the uppermost thought to be that of the mintmaster, and the the lower two of other, lesser mint officials, such as the engraver. Also, a symbol was added outside the wreath, possibly denoting the specific issue. There were apparently only two minmasters that were active for this phase, noted by monograms of the letters Ap- and Zo-. We know that the latter continued in his position into the reign of Philip's successor, Perseus, as his monograms also appear on the first three phases of his coinage. Moreover, this mintmaster signed his full name, Zoilos, under the portrait of Perseus in the first phase of that king’s coinage.