From the BCD, Jameson, Weber, and Stratford de Redcliffe Collections

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 163. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $24000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARKADIA, Heraia. Circa 500-495 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.98 g, 2h). Veiled head of Hera left, wearing stephane and beaded necklace / EP in pelleted square within incuse square. Williams, Archaic, Period I, 2f (O2/R2) = Jameson 2109 = Weber 4279 (this coin); BCD Peloponnesos 1350; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC 1-2 (same dies); Boston MFA 1237 (same dies); SNG Fitzwilliam 3878 (same dies). EF, attractive light toning, minor edge split. Extremely rare, and the finest known.

Ex BCD Collection (not in previous BCD sales); Robert Jameson Collection, 2109; Hermann Weber Collection, 4279; Lord Stratford de Redcliffe Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1879), lot 18.

Heraia was located along the Alpheios River, near Arkadia's border with Elis. Aside from the eastern plains, the lands along this river comprised the most prosperous region in Arkadia. Heraia was a religious center, and the meeting place for the members of the Arkadian League that was formed in the 5th century. In 425 BC, Heraia left the Arkadian League to join the Peloponnesian League under Sparta. By that time, Sparta had extended its influence into Arkadia in order to ensure its lines of communication into Corinth, an act that had precipitated hostilities resulting in an Arkadian defeat at Dipaia in 469 BC. Heraia became a staunch ally for Sparta, even remaining so following the devastating defeat of the Spartans at Leuktra in 371 BC. The other cities in the Arkadian League, perceiving Heraia had lost its protector, attacked the city in 369 BC, and forced it to return to their alliance. In the 3rd century, Heraia joined the Achaian League, and became embroiled in the many conflicts in which the League took part. The city withstood sieges by Kleomenes III in 227 BC and Antigonos III Doson in 222/1 BC, but was finally sacked by Philip V in the winter of 219/8 BC. In its weakened state, Heraia was compelled to join the Aitolians in their resistance against the Romans, but put up no resistance when Flamininus came into the area in 196 BC, and returned the city to the Achaian League.

Although a relatively insignificant polis, Heraia had a small, but rich coinage. While its later coinage became heavily influenced by its various league affiliations, Heraia's early coinage was magnificent in its individualistic character. The obverse featured the head of Hera, its patron deity. This coinage started in the 490s, and the portrait of Hera is striking in its purely archaic presentation. Clearly evocative of contemporary pottery style, it must have been the work of a master engraver. The reverse merely featured the beginning of Heraia's ethnic, but also in a wonderful archaic style of epigraphy. This coinage lasted into the 470s BC, and was struck in two denominations, the hemidrachm and obol.