Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 1074. Estimate CHF300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Kierion. Circa 350 BC. Obol (Silver, 0.83 g 5). Horse prancing to right. Rev. ΚΙΕΡΙΕΙ-ΩΝ Warrior (Ajax?), nude but for helmet, striding right, holding shield with his left hand and short sword with his right. SNG Copenhagen 34. Rare. Good very fine.

The prancing horse on the obverse of this coin is surely copied from that found on contemporary distaters and staters of Larissa, while the reverse is clearly taken from the coinage of Lokris.
A note from BCD: A well known ‘horse person’ in Thessalian numismatic circles has suggested that the horse on the obverse of this coin is doing the ‘Spanish walk’. Having marveled at the feats and the discipline of the the horses at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna back in the early 1970s, I agree that the term applies perfectly, not only in the case of this coin but perhaps also of others, such as the Pharkadon obols, lots 1272-1274 below, although the horse’s neck there is not as bent as on this coin.