Lot 3224

Description

Thraco-Macedonian Tribes, The Derrones. Ca. 475-450 B.C., silver dodecadrachm (34.08 gm), Obv. male driver seated in ox cart moving to right, holding goad in raised right hand and reins in left, a crested Corinthian helmet in field above ox, palmette under ox, Rev. triskeles of human legs with central dot, (S.1315 [£6500], Svoronos pl. 1, 12 [same dies with same striking weakness]. AMNG III/2 [p.56, 6] and pl. xxv, 17 [same dies]). Svoronos report four examples from these dies (most of similar weight), obverse and reverse weakly struck as typical for this series, otherwise very fine and very rare.

The Derrones were a Thraco-Macedonian tribe that lived in the mountain Pangei (Pernar), on the river Strymon in Macedon. Types exist with the ox cart going to left and others to the right. Recent hoards and other earlier finds suggest less than 100 of these large silver coins survive today.