Circa 400-350 BCE
Æ 3.43g, 17mm, 12h
Horse grazing to right
Crescent above star; [ΦAPKA-Δ]O-NA-O-N in exergue and in fields. BCD Thessaly I 1276 var. (ethnic);
BCD Thessaly II 624.2 var. (ethnic); HGC 4, 310; CNG e417, 156.
Ex J. Greiff Collection
I find it interesting that so little is known about Pharkadon in a history sense, since the city’s coinage is abundant in both silver and copper issues. For roughly two hundred years it minted coins, but we have virtually no information about it until the Second Macedonian War, when troops of Aetolia and of Philip V fought there.
Perhaps this coin gives some clue, since images of horses were extremely common on Thessalian coinage – no surprise since Alexander the Great’s own cavalry was Thessalian. Indeed, I can only guess that not a lot happened here during that period. They seem to have mostly gone with the rest of Thessaly, and evidently didn’t piss anyone off enough or get pissed off enough at anyone else to take an action that would have deserved historical mention.