Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1528. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Under Roman Rule. Lot of forty AR Tetradrachms. All First Region. After 168 BC. Head of Artemis on shield / MAKEDONWN PRWTHS, club in wreath; thunderbolt left, various monograms. Average Fine to VF. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Forty (40) coins in lot. ($5000)After the defeat of Perseus at the battle of Pydna in 168 BC, the Romans divided Macedonia into four separate autonomous administrative regions (regiones); the first (PRWTHS) lay east of the Strymon with its capital at Amphipolis, the second between the Strymon and Axius with its capital at Thessalonica, the third between the Axius and Peneus with its capital at Pella, and the fourth included most of Upper Macedonia with its capital at Heraclea Lynci. Livy informs us that initially all commerce between the regions, exploitation of the silver and gold mines, and the importation of salt were forbidden. Almost all the coinage of this period is struck in the name of the first region and runs parallel to the mass coinages of Thasos and Maroneia from about 158 BC. No silver is known from the third and fourth regions, and only a small number of rare tetradrachms from the second region. These four regions only lasted until 148 BC when the country was finally united to constitute a Roman Province and proceeded to issue coins under the authority of its legatus pro praetore.