Area: | Thrace: Istros |
Period: | 400-350 BC |
Denomination: | AR Drachm |
Obverse: | Two young male heads, facing, side by side, one upright, the other inverted. |
Reverse: | Sea-eagle standing left, on a dolphin left, which it attacks with it's beak. "ΙΣΤΡΙΗ" above eagle. |
Reference: | GCV 1669 var. (exact reference unknown due to the possibility of a monogram to the right reverse) |
Weight: | 6.8 gms |
Diameter: | 17.9 mm |
Comment: | The curious obverse type has variously been interpreted as representing the Dioscouri, the rising and setting sun, and the supposed two branches of the Danube River (or Ister). (Sear) |
THRACE/IstrosIstros was situated in Lower Moesia, not far from the mouth of the Danube (Ister), and at a little distance from the coast. (near the border of modern Romania and Ukraine) It was a colony of Miletus. It's large output of silver coinage in the 1st half of the 4th century, B.C., suggests it was a place of commercial importance. |