Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 268. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ELIS, Olympia. 83rd-85th Olympiad. 448-440 BC. AR Stater (11.61 g, 2h). Eagle flying right, grasping hare with talons and beak / Thunderbolt with wings below and volutes above; all within incuse circle. Seltman, Temple 65 (dies AN/αο); BCD Olympia 35-6 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 359 (same obv. die). Fine, lightly toned, a few countermarks on obverse.

The upper portion of Seltman’s obverse die AN apparently broke at some point, as the wing on the right on this specimen is clearly different in appearance from the illustrated examples. There certainly was no tooling on this coin, and the die wear evident elsewhere suggests it was struck very late in the life of the obverse die.