Dia (Dion)

Triton XV, Lot: 64. Estimate $200. Sold for $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Dia (Dion) (IACP p. 687)

Other than its location and the small number of mid 4th century BC coins that have been found and published since the 1990s, virtually nothing is known about Dia. It was apparently not a polis in either political or urban terms.

THESSALY, Dia. Mid 4th century BC. Æ Chalkous (14mm, 2.39 g, 6h). Head of Zeus r., hair bound with tainia in the form of a wreath, vertical thunderbolt behind / [ΔΙ]Α-ΩИ retrograde from top l. downwards, Demeter in long chiton seated l. on throne with a back, feet on footstool, phiale in outstretched r. hand, sceptre held diagonally in l., below throne, small Δ. Studies Price, p. 115, Issue I, 1 (but as Dion in Macedonia) corr. [there actually is a small Δ below the throne on this die and on the above article’s pl. 28, 1d one can see the horizontal line behind the neck of Demeter that is part of the top of the throne]. Hatzopoulos/Psoma, p. 11, 1 (as Dia in Thessaly). Good VF, dark green patina.

ASW’s note on the only other Dia coin to have appeared in the market (Nomos 4, 1035) is worth quoting verbatim: Virtually all the known coins of Dia, including the example that appeared in Bankhaus Aufhäuser 15 (21 March 2000) 137 (the only other example of a coin from Dia offered for public sale), are now in museums - all the pieces published in 1998 that were not already in public collections were donated to the Athens Cabinet. Thus, this is the only example to be had on the market.