Philip II AE FUN!

I have always enjoyed the History of Philip II of Makedon. Brilliant man for his era, and perhps one of the more billiant minds in Ancient History.

Wonderful book clearly puts Philip II in perspective: without the rebuilding of Makedon into a nation, without him making revolutionary reforms creating the Makedonwn Phalanx, without him developing the Makedonwn Wedge Cavalry, without him capturing and developing the Silver mines to finance, without him to develop an excellent Military Command Staff, Alexander III (the Great) may had never happened. Alexander's brilliance was to EXECUTE his Father's plans to conquer Persia.

I really enjoyed "Philip II of Macedonia - Greater than Alexander" by Richard A. Gabriel. C 2010

Big fun for me today... Some time ago, @John Anthony pointed out in one of my postings that I have a RARE version of the AE coin depicting Apollo and a Horse and Rider. Both Apollo and the Rider were facing LEFT. He stated their were 4 versions. Cool, I am going to get all 4 for funzies. I found the FOURTH version today (no real push to find it), that completed a little subset collection of all four facing combinations:

LEFT-LEFT Facing:

Makedon Philip II 359-336 BC AE 17 Horse Rider LEFT-LEFT facing RARE

LEFT-RIGHT Facing:

Makedon Philip II 359-336 BC AE 19 Horse LEFT-RIGHT

Makedon Philip II 359-336 BC AE 19 Horse LEFT-RIGHT & Hound

RIGHT-LEFT Facing:

Makedon Philip II 359-336 BC AE 17 Apollo - Horse Rider RIGHT-LEFT facing

RIGHT-RIGHT Facing:

Makedon Philip II AE 18 Apollo - Youth Horseback spear head below 359-356 BCE RIGHT-RIGHT 18mm 6.2g SNG ANS 850-1

Please feel free to post your Philip II's, cool Makedons, or neat little collection subsets...

 

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Congrats completing this nice set, Alegandron.
Only got the right-right, but thats OK imho

 

Hi @Alegandron

Great set. Pleased to meet another collector interested in these coins!

I am collecting these and aiming for a complete set. I have a large number of them now, and still working through attributing the groups I bought recently: many sellers do not bother to attribute these and sometimes mistake coins of Philip III or Lysimachos for these types!

Left / Left are typically harder to find (as there are fewer left / left variants, see e.g. SNG ANS) but it is a misconception that they are the rarest. There are plenty of control marks which I have not seen come up for auction in the last year anywhere for non left / left variants.

Left / Left with a 'lion's' head (alternatively described as a head of Helios, crab, thunderbolt or unknown symbol, depending on the reference) in my view, is not too hard to find if you are looking for it. It is an interesting coin. Here is one of mine.

On your coin, to the left of your horse, what do you see? Is that a symbol which looks like a Λ (lambda)? Or I am seeing something which is not there. Do you have larger photos?

Peter

 

That's my sole Philip II.

 

Phillip ll does seem to be underrated in most theaters, but learned history /coin buffs know...

 

..are any of mine these later types?.. i would be grateful to know..

 

Is my silver Philip II welcome to hang with your coins (channeling Stevex6)?



Kings of Macedon, Philip II. 359-336 BC.
AR Tetradrachm, 14.31 gm, Amphipolis mint. Struck 315-295 BC.
Obverse: Laureate head of Zeus right.
Reverse: Youth on horseback right, holding palm; axe? below, symbol under raised foreleg.
References:

Not sure if this is the correct attribution.

John

 

I am a rotten photographer, so at THIS point I do not have a larger photo. However, I BELIEVE the Lambda you are referring to would actually be the crook of the horse's trailing leg...

Oh, Duuude! Well HAAAIIILL YES yours can! I have one as a buddy:


Makedon Philip II Tet Pella LIFETIME 353-349 Zeus Horse star spearhd Le Rider 102

Uh-oh... your Tet has a RIGHT Head / RIGHT Rider... and MINE is RIGHT Head / LEFT Rider... looks like another collecting sub-set to go after!

 

Great coins all. I am ashamed to admit that I have just two Greek coins, an AE19mm of Alexander the Great (Amphipolis) and a Seleucid serrate. Almost purely an Imperial roman collector.

 

Better get started before the OCD monster gets annoyed!



Your tet has really nice artistic style.

John

 

Hi,

Nothing terrible about your photo at all!

Both front legs are visible on your first coin so it cannot be the leg. I was referring to what appears above, which looks like a letter, which I have not seen before for this type with the same control mark, so I am very curious! If you think it is a letter, I will check all my references in case my memory is deceiving me and it is a variant which is published.

Peter

 

I was JUST about to edit my post. I agree... I had not paid closer attention. I will have to get the coin out of my safe and look harder at it. I expanded my pic on my iPad, and it does look like a Lambda. I will take a photo under my microscope and post later...

Great observation. These tired eyes missed it. Thanks for the heads-up and help!

BTW, I would really enjoy seeing your set!

 

I dig mine with the cool little bucranium!



Kingdom of Macedon. Philip II, 359-336 BC.

O: Head of Apollo right R:Horseman right, bukranion below. SNG Copenhagen 604. 17 mm, 5.6 g

 

That's not Phillip II ... THIS is a bronze of Phillip II!


What's that you say?

Phillip of Macedon? Like this?



Ohhhhhhh! That's very different ....

 

My poor little Philip is feeling very inadequate right now. No idea what that control symbol is...


So I will post my little sub-collection of Farnese Hercules to keep him company.

 

LOL! You are evil, RC. Just evil.

 

Very cool.

 

..badoom TISH!

 

Each of yours is definitely a Philip II. Nice coins BTW!

Peter

 

Great, looking forward to it!

My collection is on my website (accessible via my profile page).

Philip II coins are always on my want list....

Peter