Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1341. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $2800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 435-400 BC. AR Drachm (6.28 gm). Youth wrestling bull to the right / LAP above, ISAIA below, bridled horse galloping right; all within an incuse square. Herrmann pl. iii, 1 (same obverse die); Dewing 1389 (same obverse die); SNG Copenhagen 107 var. (spacing of ethnic). Attractive light toning, choice EF, very slight double striking on the reverse. Beautifully engraved obverse die and the finest example of this type that we can locate in sales of the last decade. ($2000)

Ex Triton II (1-2 December 1998), lot 366; Margaretha Ley Collection (Numismatik Lanz, 21 November 1994), lot 67 @ DM 5200; Dieter Gorny Auktion 44 (3 April 1989), lot 266.

Both sides of this coin taken together represent a scene at a taurokathapsia, a Thessalian festival game for the young nobility. The 'toreador' would leap from his galloping stallion to tackle the bull on foot, rather like a modern rodeo.