Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 1289. Estimate CHF300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Pharsalos. Late 5th-mid 4th century BC. Trihemiobol (Silver, 1.45 g 6). Head of Athena to right, wearing Attic helmet adorned with a hippocamp to right. Rev. Φ-Α / Ρ-Σ (last two letters retrograde) Thessalian cavalryman riding horse galloping to right, wearing petasos, chlamys and chiton, and brandishing a lagobolon with his right hand. Apparently unpublished and unknown to Lavva. Unique, a remarkable coin of superb style. Heavily crystalized with some scratches, otherwise, about extremely fine.

This coin is one of the very few pieces in this sale that shows precisely what the soil of Thessaly does to the metal objects found buried within it! BCD was very much against the idea of including coins that were heavily corroded, as I would have usually done to be complete, but omitting all such pieces would have left many major gaps in the presentation of Thessaly’s coinage. And I simply could not resist this piece, which must have been a special presentation issue!