Extremely Rare Seuthes Didrachm

CNG 88, Lot: 62. Estimate $1000. Sold for $18000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Seuthes I or II. Circa 424-405 BC or 405-386 BC. AR Didrachm (20mm, 8.56 g, 1h). Horseman riding right, preparing to throw spear / ΣEVΘA/APΓV/PION within shallow incuse square. Peter p. 76 = Topalov 71 = Youroukova 26 = Mouchmov 5688 = Traité IV 1290 = de Luynes 1807. VF, toned, some porosity. Extremely rare, the second known (the other in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris).

The silver coinage in the name of Seuthes is extremely rare. For the most comprehensive and most recent survey, see Peter, pp. 76-88. In her 1976 study of the Thracian coinage, Youroukova argued against the authenticity of this didrachm type, but reversed her condemnation in a later article: Y. Youroukova, “Le monnayage du souverain thrace Seuthès II” in Kraay-Mørkholm Essays, pp. 317-21. While most authors attribute this issue to Seuthes I, the evidence is far from conclusive. The find evidence for all the silver coins in Seuthes’ name is practically nonexistent, so stylistic and metrological data provide the only clues for dating, and these can only suggest a date of issue in the period of the mid-5th to mid-4th century BC (see Peter, p. 78).