Triobol from Maroneia (Thrace)

The cities of ancient Greece chose pictorial motifs with local significance for their coinage. Local religious cults and myths, synonyms for the polis name, or typical flora and fauna are depicted. Maroneia, a Thracian port and trading city on the northern coast of the Aegean, shows quite prosaically its most important economic commodities: horses and wine. A galloping horse appears on the obverse of this triobol. To indicate the small face value of the coin, only half of the horse is shown. For the same reason, on the reverse, encircled by the name of the responsible official, Herakleides, we see a single bunch of grapes instead of the whole vine found on the tetradrachms of Maroneia. This coin, dating from the first half of the 4th century BC, was struck according to Persian weight standards, since the city had been incorporated into this great empire from the east before King Philip II conquered Maroneia for Macedonia around 348 BC.

Obverse: MAPΩ (Maro). Forepart of horse galloping right. Reverse: EΠI HPAKΛEIΔEΩ (Epi Herakleideo). Bunch of grapes on a vine branch in dotted square.