Damastion

Damastion was an ancient city of the western and central Balkans, best known for the silver coins it struck from the late fifth century BC until about 280 BC. It is attested in literature only by Strabo, who says it had silver mines and places it in Illyria under the Illyrian tribes of the Dyestes and the Enchelei-Sesarethii, and who says it was colonized from Aegina. Its exact site has never been settled: coin finds northeast of Janjevo near Novo Brdo have led some scholars to look in modern Kosovo, others place it in southern Illyrian territory, and others near Resen in North Macedonia. The mines most likely fell to Philip II of Macedon after he defeated the Illyrian king Bardylis, and the city's independent coinage ended once Macedonian coins spread through the region. Its coinage circulated widely, from Dardania to the southern Adriatic coast.