399, Lot: 124. Estimate $100. Sold for $65. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Perrhaiboi. Circa 460-440 BC. AR Hemidrachm (14mm, 2.35 g, 3h). Hero, nude but for cloak tied at neck, standing right, holding band across horns of forepart of bull leaping right / Π-E, forepart of bridled horse right; all within incuse square. BCD Thessaly II 542; HGC 4, 140. Near VF, toned.

From the BCD Collection. Ex Frank Kovacs III (23 October 1981), lot 49; Leo Hamburger 72 (11 June 1930), lot 119.

It is noted in the Triton sale (BCD Thessaly II) that “...the bull wrestler on this coin is not bearded. To this we can add the unusual detail, or rather, deviation from the norm, that there is nor petasos in sight. Could it be that the die cutter had in mind an actual individual or was it just one more attempt to produce coins with subtly different iconography to that of other poleis?”