Diobol - Saratokos Type I, Σ-Α

The Odrysian Kingdom under Saratokos occupied an awkward political moment — sandwiched between Athenian commercial pressure from the west and the expanding ambitions of Macedon to the south, the Thracian dynasts had strong incentive to strike their own silver coinage rather than rely on imported currency for local transactions. This diobol belongs to a type distinguished by its monogram placement, a detail that has allowed modern scholars to sequence the Saratokos issues into at least two groups.

Saratokos himself remains poorly documented in literary sources; most of what we know of his reign comes from the coins themselves and scattered Athenian inscription evidence.