Hemidrachm - Phayllos

This hemidrachm belongs to the emergency federal coinage struck by the Phokians during the Third Sacred War, when the sanctuary funds at Delphi — seized by the Phokian general Philomelos beginning in 356 BC — were being systematically melted into coin to pay mercenary armies. Phayllos, brother of the more famous Onomarchos, took command after his brother's death at the Battle of the Crocus Field in 352 BC and continued the policy of converting temple silver into military currency. His tenure was short; he died of illness in 351 BC, making coins struck under his name among the most chronologically compressed issues in the entire Phokian series.