Dodekadrachm - Epi...

The Derrones were a Paeonian tribe of the northern Aegean hinterland whose coinage — including these massive dodekadrachms — represents one of the heaviest silver denominations struck anywhere in the ancient Greek world. Their production coincides almost exactly with the period of Persian withdrawal from Macedon and Thrace after Xerxes' failed invasion, suggesting the tribe gained enough political autonomy and access to local silver sources to issue on a monumental scale. The series was short-lived; Paeonian tribal coinage of this weight class disappears entirely by the mid-fifth century.