Artistic Head of Helios

207, Lot: 122. Estimate $300. Sold for $555. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Perseus. 179-168 BC. AR Drachm (16mm, 2.69 g, 10h). Third Macedonian War issue. Uncertain mint in Thessaly. Hermias, magistrate. Stuck circa 171/0 BC. Head of Helios facing slightly right / Rose. Price, Larissa p. 241; SNG Keckman 795. EF, toned.

Ex Dix Noonan and Webb (29 September 2008), lot 5569.

In his 1988 article on Rhodian imitations, R. Ashton has argued persuasively that this coinage was struck by Perseus to pay Cretan mercenaries serving in his army (see “A Series of Pseudo-Rhodian Drachms from Mainland Greece,” NC 1988, pp. 29-30). Rhodian coinage circulated on Crete, where it was a familiar and trusted currency for the locals, and it is likely that they would have required payment in that form (see also Ashton, SM 146 (May 1987), p. 34).