Among the Finest Known Derrones Dodekadrachms

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 101. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $37500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACO-MACEDONIAN TRIBES, Derrones. Circa 480-465 BC. AR Dodekadrachm (31.19 g). Driver, holding goad in right hand, driving ox cart left; above, crested Corinthian helmet left; aphlaston below / Triskeles right. Topalov 9 var. (no symbol below ox); HPM pl. I, 12 var. (same); AMNG III/2, 10 var. (same); Traité I 1448 var. (same); SNG ANS -; SNG Copenhagen -; Dewing 1015 var. (palmette not aphlaston). EF, lightly toned, minor edge splits, light scuff on reverse. Good metal. Among the finest known.

Although this variety with Corinthian helmet and aphlaston is unpublished, an aphlaston is known on issues with an eagle or wheel above the ox (cf. C. Sternberg, “Ein umgeschnittener Vorderseitenstempel einer Grossmünze der Derronen” in SM 137 [February 1985], p. 5, 3-4). The context and meaning of the types of the Derrones' dodekadrachms are still being debated. Little is known of this tribe other than what can be gleaned from their surviving coinage. Hoard find-spots suggest that they inhabited inland Paeonia, and the absence of their coins from the Asyut hoard suggests that the coinage postdates the burial of that hoard. The obverse type depicts a male figure who is most likely the tribal king and hereditary high priest while the helmet suggests a military reference.