4th century BCE
Æ 13mm 2.52g 9h
Head of Apollo to right /
Stag kneeling to right, head reverted; A above.
Cox, Curium 3; Destrooper pl. 10, 12
Aristrokrates was presumably the father of Pasikrates of Kourion and ruled Kourion for some time himself, but other than that we know nothing about him. Even his name is known only from one inscription and this coin is surmised to have been minted by him due to the ‘A’ present and its similarity to coinage of known kings before and after.
On this particular coin, the ‘A’ has worn off, but better coins of the type contain it.
As far as I know, Aristokrates lived around the time of Philip II, but the two were not pen pals. I admit that the main reasons he is included on this list is I won the coin at a lowball bid and he had a cool sounding name.
Imagine going into a room and saying “I am Aristokrates.” It sounds…well…aristrocratic. Note that I looked it up and the word ‘aristocratic’ sadly doesn’t come from him, or this coin would be even more interesting (and aristocratic).