Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 548. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Thebes. Circa 395-338 BC. AR Obol (0.80 g). Theot(i)-, magistrate. Struck circa 363-348 BC. Boiotian shield, [club left across upper half] / Youthful head of Herakles right, wearing lion's skin headdress; QE downward on lower right; all within concave field. Head, Boeotia p. 69, pl. V, 6 = BMC p. 84, 169, pl. XV, 10; SNG Cop. 354-355. Good VF, even grey tone, surface roughness. ($500)

The attribution of these abundant QE obols to this magistrate is arbitrary. They could belong to the much earlier magistrate QE-OG or be an issue of the magistrate QE-OP, about five years later. However, apart from the stylistic criteria (see note to lot 547 above), the writer has taken into account the rarity of the staters issued by this magistrate which, when seen against his fairly common bronze issues and the fact that they were struck immediately after Epaminondas, seems to indicate that, out of respect for the great statesman, his successor chose to limit his own stater issues, thus allowing even more exposure to the already abundant issues of his illustrious predecessor. An issue of obols though would in no way be an affront to his memory, especially as the two first letters of QE-OT(I)-'s name happen to coincide with the well known and widely used shortened version of the Theban ethnic.