Triton XXI, Lot: 548. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EASTERN EUROPE, Imitations of Philip II of Macedon. 3rd century BC. AR Tetradrachm (22mm, 13.46 g, 9h). Dreizack und Triskeles type. Uncertain mint in Northeast Hungary. Celticized head of Zeus right, wearing laurel wreath / Celticized horseman riding right; “trident” to upper left, pseudo-legend above and to right, triskeles below raised foreleg, line with central and terminal pellets below. OTA 415/1 (same obv. die); CCCBM I 118 (same dies); Flesche 549 (same obv. die); KMW 1333 (same dies); Lanz 711 (same obv. die); Zürich 1224. Near EF, toned.

Ex Leu 79 (31 October 2000), lot 145; Leu 28 (5 May 1981), lot 253.

The issues of Philip II of Macedon were one of the primary coinages circulating in the Thraco-Macedonian region from the late 4th century BC. It was such an integral coinage to the area that official Macedonian issues of Philip II type continued for decades after his death in 336. Naturally, this coinage was imitated by various tribes in the Danube region, probably to facilitate trade with cities where the type was a recognized medium of exchange, down to the first century BC. The earliest types were reasonably faithful copies of the obverse and reverse types, but over time the various tribes “morphed” them, often into abstract designs that only vaguely resembled the originals.