Wise men surrounding mother with pieces of eight (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
the magi
'wise men' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'surrounding mother with pieces of eight' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'mother' could be 'ma' (ma can mean mother) and 'ma' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'eight' is 'thegi' which is present in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for the magi that I've seen before include "Journeymen" , "Eastern sages" .)