117, Lot: 10. Estimate $100. Sold for $225. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY. Rhodian Mercenaries. Circa 172-168 BC. AR Drachm (14mm, 2.66 g). Hermias, magistrate. Facing head of Helios / Rose with bud to right. Price, Larissa pg. 241; SNG Keckman 795. EF, off center.

This type is apparently one of a number of issues struck for Perseus during the Third Macedonian War as payment for mercenaries who required Rhodian coinage. Price has suggested that the Zo... which replaces the Rhodian ethnic on this issue may be the patronymic of the named issuer, Hermias, and indeed we know of a Hermias, son of Zoilos, at exactly this period, a man who came from Oropos and was Hieromnemon at Delphi in 178 BC. Zoilos himself may also be the same man whose name appears below the portrait of Perseus on his early tetradrachms, and whose monogram continues to appear on Perseus' coinage for much of the period of the full weight issues.