Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 2397. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARGOLIS, Argos. Circa 490-470 BC. AR Triobol (2.53 g, 11h). Forepart of wolf lying down left; pelleted ground line below legs / Large A; two small incuse squares above, pellet below crossbar; all within shallow square incuse. BCD Peloponnesos -; SNG Copenhagen 1 var. (same obv. die, no pellet on rev.). Fine, toned. Extremely rare.

Ex BCD Collection (not in LHS sale); Virgil M. Brand Collection (Part 7, Sotheby's, 25 October 1984), lot 85 (part of).

Struck from the same obverse die as the following lot. This coin is significant for placing these early single-pellet coins among the early group with slant-crossbar A on the reverse, because not only does it share an obverse die with two coins without the pellet (the next lot and SNG Copenhagen 1), but it was also struck at an earlier die state. These coins also substantiate the claim that the lying-wolf obverses began late in the first period of coinage at Argos (see BCD Peloponnesos 1009 note).