Triton XV, Lot: 151. Estimate $150. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 450 BC (or later). AR Hemiobol (9mm, 0.48 g, 4h). Bull’s hoof of unusual form, border of dots / ΙΡΑ-[Λ], the Ρ upside down and the Ι down to l. sideways, nymph Larissa to l., depicted from the waist upwards, her hair in a bun at the back of her head, holding a ball (?) in her l. hand. Unpublished, unknown and unique (?). VF, lightly toned, a pellet like die flaw to the r. of the obverse, the reverse weak and double struck.

A highly important coin marking the transition from the taurokathapsia issues to the “nymph” reverse fractions of Larissa. It would be difficult to over-stress the significance of such “missing link” coins (see also lot 145 above for another case) that always seem to have been struck in minute quantities and therefore have reached us in single or, in the best of circumstances, very few examples.