Æ 15mm, 3.33g
Star of eight rays. R/ Aphrodite Urania, holding sceptre, seated slightly l. on globe.
SNG ANS 914-8; AMNG III.2, 4; HGC 3.1, 607
Ex London Ancient Coins
Uranopolis may be the site of one of the wackier stories from history, when Alexarchos, brother to Kassander, created his own city. That would have been normal, but he created his own language, religion, and customs for everyone to follow. To this day we know very little about what went on, other than they minted coins and ancient sources agree that Alexarchos was a wacko.
This is one of his coins. On one side is Aphrodite, but what has intrigued scholars for ages is what she’s sitting on: a globe. This is a celestial globe, but it’s an indication that the Greeks weren’t morons: they knew perfectly well the world was round. They even had calculated its rough size.
On the other side is the Vergina Sun. This has nothing to do with the State of Virginia, but was instead a symbol heavily used by Macedonian royalty. However, it predates their use and is thought to signify Helios, the sun deity. This would make a lot of sense on the coin since Alexarchos had a weird habit of asking people to refer to himself as Helios. In recent times, the Vergina Sun became subject to a huge dispute between Greece and North Macedonia, when the latter placed the sun on its flag and the former accused them of trying to steal Macedonian history.
The ruins of Ouranopolis are approximately known and are believed to be mostly submerged today.