Drachm

The Magnetes occupied a narrow coastal strip of Thessaly between Mount Pelion and the Pagasetic Gulf, and their coinage as an independent federation dates to the period following the Roman defeat of Perseus of Macedon at Pydna in 168 BC — the very event that brackets this issue's opening date. Rome dissolved the Macedonian monarchy that year but left Thessalian leagues nominally intact, and the Magnetes appear to have exploited that window to strike civic coinage on the reduced Thessalian standard. The series is short-lived; by the 140s BC Roman administrative reorganization was tightening control over Greek minting activity throughout the region.