BCE 0301 - 0400 (4th century) MOESIA, Istrus. Ca. 4th c. BCE. AR Drachm. Two Male Heads Facing (Right Inverted) / Sea-Eagle Grasping Dolphin; ΙΣΤΡΙΗ.
Description
Istrus Drachm with Paired Heads and Sea-Eagle (ca. 4th century BCE)
Moesia, City of Istrus
This silver drachm was struck at Istrus, a Greek colony on the western Black Sea coast. The obverse presents two male heads facing one another, with the right head inverted—an arresting and distinctive civic type variously interpreted as the Dioscuri or as a local expression of duality and balance. The reverse depicts a sea-eagle in flight grasping a dolphin, a vivid maritime emblem that evokes Istrus’s coastal identity and economic reliance on the Black Sea. The ethnic ΙΣΤΡΙΗ and the ΠA monogram further anchor the coin to its issuing city and magistracy. Certified Choice Fine by NGC, the piece exemplifies one of the most iconic and symbolically rich coinages of the northern Aegean world.
