page_title: Illyrian coinage
section_title: Monunius
hierarchical_section_title: Illyrian coinage / Illyrian kings / Monunius
caption_attribution_description: English: ILLYRIA, Apollonia. Circa 340-280 BC. AR Stater (21mm, 10.40 g, 11h). Cow standing right, head lowered left, suckling calf / Double stellate pattern within dual linear border; A Π O Λ around. Meadows,
context_page_description: Illyrian coinage which began in the 6th century BC continued up to the 1st century of Roman rule. It was the southern Illyrians who minted the first coins followed by the northern Illyrian during the Roman era. Illyrian coins have also been found in other areas apart from Illyria, such ancient Macedonia, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt.
context_section_description: The first Dardanian king to have minted silver coins was Monunius in the beginning of the 3rd century BC, around 280 BC. He struck his coins in the Greek colony of Durrës and they differed only in having the jaw of a boar set over the cow, as a symbol of the royal Illyrian house. The coins also had the abbreviated inscription 'ΔYP' (for Durrës) to donate the place where they were minted, as well as showing royal sovereignty over the city. These coins have been found in great numbers in the Illyrian city of Gurëzeza, and in the interior of Albania beyond Apollonia. The Illyrian kingdom under Monunius extended as far as the Lyncestian Lakes, and from here Monunius could have intervened in the quarrel about the Macedonian throne, eventually turning into a claimant for it. This surely is the meaning of the minting of a second series of silver coins bearing his name and traditional Macedonian symbols, the head of Heracles on the face and on the reverse, Olympian Zeus sitting on his throne. That this, was a short lived dream of the Illyrian king is shown by the fact that so few coins were minted, so much that only one specimen is preserved today.
caption: Apollonia's coin. A cow and a suckling calf. Reverse: double stellate pattern within dual linear border and the inscription A Π O Λ around.
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