Nomos 18

KINGS OF ILLYRIA. Monounios, circa 300-280 BC. Stater (Silver, 21 mm, 10.49 g, 2 h), Dyrrhachium. Cow standing right, her head turned back to left to suckle her calf, kneeling left beneath her; above, boar's jawbone to right. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΜΟΝΟΥΝΙΟΥ Double stellate pattern in the form of a square within a double linear border; to left, spear head upwards; to right, club upwards; all within a linear circle. BMC 1 (same dies). S. Gjongecaj, “Le Trésor de Kreshpan (Albanie)”, RN 153 (1998), Emission 4, 203 (same dies). Maier 87. Very rare variety without the city name. Well-struck, bright and clear. Extremely fine.

Monounios was an Illyrian king about whom almost nothing is known (it has also been suggested that he was a Dardanian). He seems to have been involved with the Macedonian succession question after the death of Lysimachos; a helmet inscribed with his name was found in Lake Ohrid. The coins prove that he was able to control Dyrrhachium for a short period in the early third century BC: his monogram appears on the coinage and then, for a time, he was able to put his full name and title on staters, even omitting the city’s own name. This indicates that the city was fully under the king’s control (there are coins in the name of his successor Mytilios as well). In any case, these coins are very rare, indeed.