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Exceedingly Rare Thraco-Macedonian Region (Derribes?)
Silver Tetradrachm
1031
Thraco-Macedonian Region Uncertain mint (perhaps of the Derrones?). Silver Tetradrachm (13.54 g), ca.
520-500 BC. Bull walking left on ground line, head lowered. Rev. Small incuse square with irregular surfaces.
(HPM 33, pl. II, 19 = Traité IV 1227, pl. CCCXXVI, 20 = J. Kagan, “Some Archaic Bovine Curiosities,”
MN
33 (1988), p. 41, 4, pl. 16 (same rev. die); cf. Gorny 52, 148; SNG ANS -).
Exceedingly rare - only two other
known specimens.
Struck on a very broad flan. Toned. Choice very fine.
$ 8,500
ex Prospero Collection (The New York Sale XXVII, Baldwin / Markov / M&M, 4 January 2012), lot 252 (purchased privately from
Athena, Münich, 27 October 1989).
The Derrones have been variously identified as a Thracian or Paeonian people who may have inhabited the Upper Strymon valley
or a region further to the south. They are known exclusively from their inscribed Archaic coinage which is described in Greek as
“Derronic” (DERRONIKON). This particular coin belongs to an anepigraphic issue that has been tentatively associated with the
Derrones in the past, but the style of the bull seems very different from that of the oxen on their inscribed issues. In his 1988 article
in
Museum Notes,
Kagan only attributes this issue to the Thraco-Macedonian region and points out that coins of similar weight and
denomination were struck by Alexander I of Macedon (c. 498-454 BC).
1032
Macedonia, Akanthos. Silver Tetrobol (2.13 g), ca. 470-390 BC. Forepart of bull left, head turned to look
back; above, swastika. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. (SNG ANS 40; SNG Ashmolean 2212). Uniform
medium grey toning. Very fine.
$ 250