Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 1252. Estimate CHF600.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Phalanna. Circa 360-340 BC. Lot of two silver coins, a trihemiobol and an obol. . 1252.1 1.30 g 2. Youthful male head to right, perhaps Peloros (?). Rev. ΦΑΛ - ΑΝ - Ν - ΑΙΩ - Ν Bridled horse trotting right. BMC 3 = Papaevangelou-Genakos 3 = Traité IV 586, pl. CCXCIII, 10. SNG Copenhagen 201.1252.2 0.76 g 11. Youthful male head to right, perhaps Peloros (?). Rev. ...ΝΑΙΩ-Ν Head of nymph to right.E. T. Newell, Some Rare or Unpublished Greek Coins, AJN XLVIII, 1914, p. 64, 11 and pl. VIII, 11. Papaevangelou-Genakos 4. Rare to very rare. Toned. The first exceptionally nice, the second with rough surfaces and some horn silver adhering. Extremely fine (trihemiobol) and very fine (obol).

1252.2 acquired from R. Hecht in the 1970s, ex Münzen und Medaillen, FPL 290, July 1968, 2.

In most publications the larger coin in this lot is termed an obol, but, like so many other Thessalian fractions, it simply must be a trihemiobol given its weight (the very much lower weights others of this type have are caused by the terrible corrosion most have suffered). The obol, which accompanies it shows the kind of condition these coins are usually found in, but also reveals the great care and skill of the die cutter: stylistically both of these small coins are superb.
A note from BCD: The little obol, apart from being much rarer than the other coin in this lot, is also practically impossible to find in good metal and without defects. The pedigreed piece offered here is probably the best to ever appear at auction.