The $ notation in MAXScript indicates a PathName literal value, for example $Box001 is the node with the name "Box001". These special values have no equivalent direct exposure in pymxs. However, you can evaluate a StringStream that contains a MAXScript PathName Literal with readValue() and use the result in any function that takes a node or node list, for example if you want to use select():
rt.select(rt.readvalue(rt.StringStream('$Box001')))In this instance you could also use rt.getNodeByName(), but that method takes a name rather than a scene path, and does not support wildcards.