Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 1259. Estimate CHF225.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Phalanna. Later 4th century BC. Lot of two bronze dichalka. . 1259.1 17 mm, 4.36 g 9. Male head right, with very curly hair, depicted as if floating. Rev. ΦΑΛΑΝ Head of nymph to right. Papaevangelou-Genakos 13. 1259.2 17 mm, 4.51 g 12. Head of Zeus Peloris to right, with fragmentary inscription below. Rev. ΦΑΛΑ Head of nymph to right. Papaevangelou-Genakos 16 var. Rogers 455. Both rare and with brown patinas. First with a minor flan crack, otherwise, about extremely fine (2).

The head on the obverse of 1259.1 is not the usual one we would expect to see at Phalanna. The hair, with its curls stretching upwards is reminiscent of the way the fountain nymph Arethusa is sometimes portrayed at Syracuse, as an indication of her watery character. Could this young male head be a personage from a local myth at Phalanna? As for the second coin, it is interesting that no laurel wreath is visible on any coin struck with this obverse, even though almost every written description found for this type describes it as being laureate. The head has also been identified as that of a bearded Ares, but this seems unlikely. Nevertheless, the inscription, Peloris or Pelores, which does appear on some of these coins, makes the identification as Zeus Peloris unquestionable.