Very Rare Silver Issue of Gyrton

311, Lot: 39. Estimate $300. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Gyrton. Circa 340s-330s BC. AR Hemidrachm (16mm, 2.93 g, 12h). Head of the nymph Gyrtone facing slightly left, wearing ampyx / [ΓYP]–TΩNIΩN, horse right, preparing to roll. BCD Thessaly II 77 (hammer of $11,000). VF, toned, a bit porous. Very rare.

From the BCD Collection.

A note from BCD from the Triton sale: The few very rare facing nymph hemidrachms and the unique signed profile male head hemidrachm (see Nomos 4, 1048) are the only known silver coins of Gyrton whose bronze coin production was quite plentiful and varied. The city authorities and the locals obviously used the silver of Larissa for their regular transactions and reserved the silver struck in the name of the Gyrtonians for special occasions. The writer owes the refined chronology of the Gyrton silver to Dr. F. Burrer who kindly made available his forthcoming study on the silver coins of this mint.