Further Selections From BCD Boiotia // Liberation of Kadmeia

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 169. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOEOTIA, Federal Coinage. Circa 395-340 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.73 g). Boeotian shield of distinctive style / Kantharos; above, club right; to lower right, vertical crescent facing left; all within concave circle. BCD Boiotia 40. Good VF, toned, small die break on obverse.

From the BCD Collection. Ex Peus 334 (4 November 1992), lot 263.

Hansjorg Bloesch in his publication of the Winterthur Greek Coins dates this issue to the years after the liberation of the Kadmeia by the Theban Nationalists. The style of the shield on this coin as well as on lots 41 and 44 below is quite different from all the "mainstream" hemidrachms of the League. In fact, coins with the crescent symbol on the reverse are also found with another unusual shield shape on the obverse. One can not avoid thinking that these crescent issues were struck at different times or by different mints, or both.