Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 1343. Estimate CHF225.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF350. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Skotussa. Circa late 3rd - 2nd century BC. Trichalkon (Bronze, 21mm, 5.66 g 9). Head of Athena wearing close-fitting helmet adorned with a crest and plume. Rev. ΣΚΟ Bridled horse prancing to right. CNG electronic auction 208, 2009, 58 (same dies, but misidentified). Rogers 546 var. SNG Copenhagen 257-258 var. A lovely, clearly struck coin with a fine dark patina. Nearly extremely fine.

This coin type is usually dated to the 3rd century BC but it probably is later, almost certainly 2nd century. This is because the helmet of Athena is strikingly similar in basic form to that worn by Roma on early denarii, struck from c. 211 until the earlier 2nd cenury (as Crawford 51 ff. - of course the Roma’s helmet bears a wing rather than a plume, but the shape is the same).
A note from BCD: Head, in his Historia Numorum 2, p. 310, identified the obverse of this and of the next lot as “Ares(?)” and this writer tend to agree with him rather than with ASW. Admittedly, the similarity with the obverses of lots 257 and 258 above is not striking but, then, the Skotussa coins are much later.