Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 2820. Estimate $100.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MESSENIA, Messene. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Time of the later Julio-Claudians, mid first century AD. Æ Hemiobol or Hexichalkon (4.31 g, 6h). Veiled and draped bust of Tyche right, wearing mural crown / Zeus Ithomatas standing facing, head right, holding scepter and eagle; wreath to right. Grandjean Série XVI, Em. β, 688b (D404/R607 – this coin, illustrated); BCD Peloponnesos 762. Near VF, green patina.

Ex BCD Collection (not in LHS sale).

Grandjean’s illustration, deriving from a cast this coin, displays certain anomolies on the “obverse”, not present on the actual coin, which are due to faults in the clay matrix used.