Tetradrachm

Philippi was founded by Philip II of Macedon in 356 BC — the same year this coinage begins — on the site of the Thracian settlement Krenides, specifically to control the gold and silver mines of Mount Pangaion nearby. The mines generated revenues ancient sources place at over 1,000 talents annually, financing Philip's military campaigns and the eventual absorption of the Greek city-states. This tetradrachm is part of that early civic coinage struck before the city's output was absorbed entirely into the Macedonian royal monetary system.