MACEDON, Neapolis. Circa 500-480 BC. AR Stater (18.5mm, 9.74 g). Facing gorgoneion with protruding tongue / Quadripartite incuse square. AMNG III/2, 6; HGC 3, 583; SNG ANS 406–19; Dewing 1604; Kraay & Hirmer 433; Traité I 1740. EF, deeply toned, light scratch under tone on reverse. Perfectly centered on excellent metal.
Ex Comte René Philipon Collection (1870-1936).
Neapolis, which is well known for its apparently large issues of silver in the 5th-early 4th centuries BC, is relatively unknown outside of numismatics. Its exact location is unknown, though a city that has been under excavation near modern Polychronon may be Neapolis. The city was likely founded as a settlement by colonists from Mende in the 6th century BC. Like many of the other cities in the region, Neapolis supplied troops and ships to Xerxes during the Greco-Persian Wars, and afterward became a member of the Delian League. Its coinage consists of two large series of silver coins, both featuring the facing head of a gorgoneion on the obverse. The first series, with a simple quadripartite incuse reverse, began late in the Archaic period, circa 500 BC, and lasted until circa 480 BC. This is followed by a dual-sided coinage of drachms and hemidrachms featuring a female head on the reverse, which ran from the late 5th century BC until the early 4th century BC.
