Ex Star Collection

Triton XVIII, Lot: 428. Estimate $15000. Sold for $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACO-MACEDONIAN TRIBES, Mygdones or Krestones. Circa 485-480 BC. AR Stater (21mm, 9.16 g). Goat kneeling right, head reverted; dotted rosette above / Quadripartite incuse square. Lorber, Goats, Issue 4; HPM pl. III, 17 var. (solid rosette); AMNG II, p. 20, 14 and pl. V, 30; Asyut 150; Athena Fund I 27 (this coin); Gulbenkian 390 (same obv. die); Kraay & Hirmer 380. EF, lovely iridescent tone. Excellent metal.

Ex Star Collection (LHS 102, 29 April 2008), lot 119; Leu 71 (24 October 1997), lot 122; Athena Fund (Sotheby’s Zurich, 26 October 1993), lot 27; Numismatic Fine Arts XXX (8 December 1992), lot 45.

Preivously attributed to the Macedonian city of Aigai, this series was re-evaluated by O. Picard ("Les monnaies au bouc attribuées à Aigai," BSFN 50/6, 1995) and C. Lorber (see above), who have convincingly shown that, based on linguistic and iconographic evidence, Aigai cannot possibly be correct. Lorber also re-evaluated the numismatic and historical evidence, and synthesized her findings with metrological, iconographic, and hoard data to conclude that these coins were actually tribal issues emanating from an area west or southwest of Bisaltia, probably inhabited by the Mygdones or Krestones.