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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 4975719, member: 85693&quot;]Countermarks can be pretty interesting, although many of them are not very well documented, so just why they are interesting is lost to time. </p><p><br /></p><p>This one has some story still adhering to it, according to David Sear - Gaulish threats and economic crisis!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1195667[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Byzantion&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Drachm</b></p><p><b>CM on Macedonian</b> <b>Kingdom <b>Philip III Arrhidaios drachm</b></b></p><p><b>Kolophon? (c. 323-319 B.C.)</b></p><p><b>Countermark:&nbsp; 280-225 B.C.</b></p><p>Head of Herakles right, wearing lion-skin. / FILIPPOU Zeus seated left, monogram (?) left. </p><p><b>Countermark:</b>&nbsp; ΠU over prow.</p><p>SCGV 1585 (countermark)</p><p>(4.00 grams / 17 mm)</p><p><br /></p><p>This BY over prow countermark, along with a nearly identical (one) using an archaic form of B resembling Π, was used at Byzantium.</p><p><br /></p><p>David Sear notes, &quot;at this time [after c. 280 B.C.], the Byzantines were subject to continual threats by Gaulish invaders, who were bought off by the payment of huge annual tributes. The impoverished city had to resort to countermarking foreign coins in place of a proper currency.&quot;</p><p>(FORVM note)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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