Remarkable Design

Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 164. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Terone. Circa 400-348 BC. AR Tetrobol (2.32 g, 9h). Chalkidian standard. Satyr crouching left, looking into wine jar he holds with both hands / Goat standing right; T-E around; all within shallow incuse square. Hardwick group VI, pl. 29, 17; AMNG III/2, 9; Traité II 1044; SNG ANS -; SNG Copenhagen 342; BMC 9; de Luynes 1548. Good VF, lightly toned, porous. Very rare, one of the most remarkable Macedonian coin types.

Hardwick’s study of the coinage of Terone places this type among the city’s last group of silver issues, which he dates to circa 400-348 BC. None of these coins have been discovered among hoards, so this dating is primarily based on a typological analysis. The early coinage of Terone featured a quadripartite incuse square on the reverse which was replaced with a figural reverse type in the late 5th century BC. In the early 4th century BC, Terone became a member of the Chalkidian League, and Hardwick notes an issue of bronze coinage at Terone that is probably related to the late Terone silver, but also to certain issues of the Chalkidian League that date to the early 4th century BC. This relationship, along with the absence of these silver coins from 5th century hoards, forms the basis for the dating of this coinage, which must have terminated upon the city’s capture by Philip II in 348 BC. While there are a number of these coins in public collections, the fact that all are known from single finds, rather than hoards, accounts for their extreme rarity in the marketplace today.