Lot 3257

Description

Thraco-Macedonian Tribe, The Derrones. Ca. 475-450 B.C., silver dodekadrachm (35.68 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, plain under ox, Rev. triskeles of human legs with central dot, with palmette, (S.1315 [?6500], cf.Svoronos 13 [p.8], pl. 1, 14 [similar dies]. cf.AMNG III/2 [p.56, 5] and pl. xxv, 16 [similar dies]). Svoronos report 1 example from these similar dies (these of lighter weight), reverse weakly struck as typical for this series, obverse with porosity and some weakness, otherwise about very fine and very rare, dies unpublished.

The Derrones were a Thraco-Macedonian tribe that lived in the Mt. Pangei (Pernar) region, 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.