209, Lot: 42. Estimate $500. Sold for $730. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACO-MACEDONIAN REGION, Siris. Circa 525-480 BC. AR Stater (19mm, 9.61 g). Satyr right seizing nymph left; three pellets around / Quadripartite incuse square divided diagonally. Smith Group 5; HPM pl. VIII, 1-7; SNG Copenhagen 187; SNG ANS -. VF, a little porous, obverse off center.

The original attribution of this series to Lete was based on an incorrect reading in the 19th century of a late inscribed issue. Svoronos later identified an example he read as CIRINON (in retrograde), for the town of Siris (modern Serres). Later numismatists doubted this reading, most thinking the faint “letters” were actually die breaks. An exceptional, obviously inscribed, example in Leu 81 (lot 147), clearly shows that Svoronos’ reading was correct.