Sale: Nomos 2, Lot: 81. Estimate CHF17500.  Closing Date: Monday, 17 May 2010.  Sold For CHF14000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHLIASIA, Phlious. Late 6th-early 5th century BC. Half-Stater (Silver, 7.18 g). Triskeles of human legs to right with pellet at the center; between two of the legs, Φ. Rev. Incuse square divided into six irregular triangles. BCD Peloponnesos 77 (same dies). Seltman, Athens, 314 (P259/A207, same dies). Traité II, I, 1181 = Weber 3874. Extremely rare. Boldly struck. Attractive dark patina. Some minor deposits, otherwise, extremely fine.

Ex Triton VIII, 11 January 2005, 331.

The early half-staters of Phlious are extremely rare, only about half a dozen of them are known. It is struck on the Milesian standard and is related to other early coins from both Kleonai and Pheneos, though precisely why these cities should have used an Asiatic weight standard is rather uncertain to be sure. The reason for the triskeles as an obverse type might refer to a local mountain called Trikaranon - ‘the three-headed one’ - but it equally well might have nothing to do with that at all, especially since the fractions only had a single leg on their obverses! Of the five other known examples of this type (some with the triskeles to left), four are in museums (Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and London).