Hemidrachm

Demetrias was founded by Demetrius Poliorcetes around 294 BC as a synoikism — a forced amalgamation — of several older Magnesian settlements including Pagasai, Neleia, and Spalauthra. The city was designed from the outset as a military and naval base, and its coinage reflects that brief window of Macedonian ambition in Thessaly before the region passed through successive hands. The mint was active for only a short period, which explains why this hemidrachm appears across so many major reference collections without large die populations to support it.