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Stater - Demetrius I Poliorcetes Amphipolis
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 290 BC - 289 BC |
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| Composition | Gold |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | A Macedonian horseman advancing to the right on a prancing horse, wearing a broad-brimmed kausia hat and clutching a long spear held diagonally across the field. The horse is depicted with muscular dynamism, its forelegs raised in a spirited pose characteristic of Hellenistic equestrian imagery. The royal legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ is inscribed in two lines flanking the central device, identifying the issuer as King Demetrius. Monograms appear in both the left and right fields, serving as mint control marks associated with the Amphipolis mint. |
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| Additional information |
Demetrius I earned his epithet "Poliorcetes" — the Besieger — through his obsessive deployment of siege machinery, most spectacularly at Rhodes from 305 to 304 BC, where his failure to take the city nevertheless earned him enough renown that the Rhodians sold his abandoned equipment to fund the Colossus. By the time these staters were struck at Amphipolis, his fortunes had reversed dramatically: he had seized the Macedonian throne in 294 BC by murdering Alexander V, but held it for only a few years before his own army defected to Pyrrhus and Lysimachus in 288 BC.
Amphipolis was Macedonia's primary gold-striking mint under his tenure, and this issue falls in the final window of his reign there.