Rare Mosses Drachm

Triton XXII, Lot: 172. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACO-MACEDONIAN TRIBES, Bisaltai. Mosses. Circa 475-465 BC. AR Drachm (15mm, 3.04 g, 6h). Heavy ‘Thraco-Macedonian’ standard. Horseman, wearing petasos and holding two spears, standing right beside his horse standing right in foreground; uncertain symbol to upper left / MO-Σ-Σ-E-Ω in shallow incuse square, around quadripartite square in relief. Peykov C0100; Topalov –; HPM pl. XI, 20 = Traité pl. XLVI, 21; HGC 3, 276. VF, old cabinet toning, just a hint of the usual granularity. Rare.

Ex Naville IV (17 June 1922), lot 430. Lot includes an old handwritten ticket in English.

Based on the style of the coins, Raymond argues that this dynast was not of the Bisaltai (Raymond p. 115, n. 4), but rather an independent tribal chieftain who retained a semblance of autonomy while paying tribute to Alexander I of Macedon. Most references retain the Bisaltai attribution, though, and placement among the Paeonian kings (ANS) is even more conjectural.