Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 195. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Abdera. Circa 395-360 BC. Æ Chalkous (2.13 g, 6h). Kleantides, magistrate. Griffin seated left, raising forepaw / Head of Silenos right; KΛEAIN-ETIΔE[Σ] (sic) around. Cf. C-N 53 = May, Abdera 309 corr. (spelling of magistrate); cf. SNG Copenhagen 369. Good VF, green patina. Exceptional for issue. Very rare, and the finest of fewer than 20 known.

Ex Helios 1 (17 April 2008), lot 41.

This coin is the finest preserved specimen from this rare issue, which was struck contemporaneously with multiple silver denominations by the same magistrate. May misread the name on his reverse die 262 as KΛEAIN-TIΔ[HΣ], but the photo clearly shows the second-half of the name has an E before the T (this misreading was not noted by C-N, either). The engraver of that die erred in adding the I, but he also apparently erred in adding the second E. This misspelling is also present on our coin, although from a different die. One notes here that the engraver also mistakenly used an E rather than H at the end of the name. As this part of May’s coin was illegible, this may also have been replicated on that coin.