I won this earlier this week in Agora's latest auction and it came in today, another classical Greek coin that I have been wanting to pick up since I first started collecting and finally saw an example in my price/quality sweet spot. The faces on the obverse aren't completely understood, but some theories I have read say they symbolize the Dioscuri(Castor and Pollux), the rising and setting sun, the past and future or the two branches of the danube. I personally think they are the Dioscuri but who knows. The reverse is generally interpreted to be something along the lines of "where the wind meets the sea". Some people call these drachms, some call them staters, but really at nearly 6g they don't seem to be in the usual range for either one. I have it categorized as a "drachm" just because that was the auction house's ID. Moesia, Istros. 4th century B.C. AR drachm (19.6 mm, 5.97 g, 12 h). Facing male heads, one inverted / IΣTPIH, sea-eagle left, grasping dolphin with talons; pellet between eagle and dolphin, AΠ monogram below. AMNG 417.4; SNG BM Black Sea 249. Oh, and if you've got anything from Istros lets see it!
Excellent example.This is a coin you should only get from a reliable source. I think you did well my friend and Agora is a great source.
Thanks, and I agree. The guys at Agora are awesome and I personally knew the consignor as well so I was pretty confident buying this through them.
That's a very nice coin and one of the better ones I've seen of Istros. I know the guys at Agora as well. They are pretty solid coin dealers.
I like Agora Auctions. Their starting bids are very reasonable and they ship out straight away. This is a fantastic coin. Like you I have been wanting one for a while. Some day one will come along and be in my sweet spot.
Excellent example of the type, Spork. We recently saw a few of these posted in our 'coins by their cities' thread when we got to "I": https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coins-by-city-an-alphabetical-a-to-z-of-coinage.262978/page-18
Fantastic new addition => definitely one of the coin-classics!! I was just about to post my example, but Z-bro posted that link above showing all of our fabulous Istrus examples, so I'll refrain from posting my example this time around ... Awwww, who am I trying to kid, eh? (here ya go, my friend)
