Laudator Temporis Acti

Ancient and Medieval Coins Canada. Auction 3. 24 July 2021, number 476:

KINGS OF MACEDON: Antigonos II Gonatas, 277-239 BCE, AE16. 3.63g, 16mm. Obv: Helmeted head of Athena right. Rev: Pan right, erecting trophy to right; B-A across upper field, monogram of Antigonos between legs. Moushmov 7308. Lovely depiction of Athena. The introduction of the Pan types under Antigonos II is much discussed. The most popular view is that Antigonos wished to associate himself with the expulsion of the Gauls from Greece after their massive invasion in 279 BCE, an event that carried huge significance for his contemporaries. Antigonos wished to be seen as "the shield of Greece" rather than its overlord. The story went that Pan helped rout the Gauls at Delphi by instilling in them an unreasoning fear (thus the word "panic"). Antigonos certainly participated in the expulsion of Gallic forces from Greece, especially at Lysimacheia. Another possible connection is with the confusion and fear that helped Antigonos defeat Pyrrhos's Gallic forces in a battle that ended the contest for Macedon's throne with the death of Pyrrhos himself. Pyrrhos's Gauls had desecrated royal tombs at Aegae, and Pyrrhos had betrayed Argos where the battle took place; so Antigonos could again portray himself as the saviour of Hellas. Whatever the exact reason for the Pan types, it's clear that Pan experienced a surge of popularity in the third century BCE and that Antigonos regarded the god as his patron.

Other images of the coin: I own one of these coins, a gift from my son. See Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands, Bd. III, Abt. 2 = Hugo Gaebler, Die antiken Münzen von Makedonia und Paionia (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1935), p. 187 (Antigonos Gonatas, number 6, with Plate XXXIV, 4-6). I don't have access to Andreas E.Furtwängler, "Beobachtungen zur Chronologie antigonidischer Kupfermünzen im 3. Jh. v. Chr.," Obolos 7 (2004) 277-290.