Description

290-160 BC Illyria Apollonia AR Drachm Timen
(Moneyer) Damophon (Magistrate) Cow left (G375Y)
Weight: 2.98 grams
Diameter: 18.77 mm
Cow left, calf right, ligate monogram in exergue, dot border
Curved, double-stellate pattern, vertical single device line, petal rays, triple dots, line-circle border
Notes from Dr. Petrányi on January 24, 2005: This is a Timen – Damofontos drachm from the final series of the Apolloniate cow/calf series, somewhere in the 70’s BC, Class Lc2b in my relative chronology: L = cow to left; c = concave sides of the square; 2 = horizontally connected alpha (A) with monogramme or nothing in the exergue; b = petal-shape rays. This may be understood better by looking at the chronology table on my web page.
Moneyer TIMHN (Timen, another dialectical form of this name is Timon, “respect”), working for eponymos Damophon which is the Doric version of Demophon (“the voice of the people”). The missing syllable is phi – omega -nu (… fon …).
The third syllable …tos is the genitive suffix, usual for Greek coinage like Alexandrou for Alexander the Great. Most probably the genitive case was meant the phrase epi + the name in the genitive case = during his activity or rule.
The monogramme is an enigma. Greek letters gamma, kappa, pi, alpha; most probably for the name of a third person.