311, Lot: 240. Estimate $100. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Perrhaiboi. Circa 425-400 BC. AR Hemidrachm (16mm, 2.63 g, 12h). The hero Thessalos, nude but for petasos and chlamys, holding band around the head of a forepart of bull charging right / Π–E–PA, forepart of horse right; all within shallow incuse square. BCD Thessaly II 544 var. (“E” above horse’s muzzle). VF, toned, flatness on bull’s head. Very rare.

From the BCD Collection.

A note from BCD from the Triton sale: The later hemidrachms of the Perrhaiboi are very difficult to find, much more so than the archaic ones; their stylistic affinities to some of the mass produced Trikka hemidrachms suggest that the same artist (or school of artists) produced the dies for both mints. Obviously, the creators of the inspirational designs that characterized some of the earliest Perrhaiboi issues were not available any more and so the Trikka hemidrachms proved to be perfectly adequate for their transactions and those of other Thessalian cities (like Krannon) that did not strike silver around the end of the 5th century.