Lot 3503

Description

Moesia Inferior, Istros, (400-350 B.C.), silver stater, (4.47 g), obv. two young male heads facing, side by side, left inverted, right upright, rev. sea-eagle standing to right on dolphin to left, which it attacks with its beak, below dolphin monogram **DI*, (cf.S.1669; SNG BMC 242, cf.SNG Cop.118, Pick 439). Toned, good very fine.

Ex Malter Galleries, (California), June 23, 2001 (lot 235 part). The curious obverse type has been variously interpreted as representing the Dioskouri, the rising and setting sun and the supposed two branches of the Danube (or Ister) river. See Numismatic Chronicle 1970 the article by J.G.F. Hind "Istrian Faces and the River Danuube, the type of the Silver Coins of Istria" (Pp.7-17).
A similar example in this sale has the heads opposite to the above.