Triton XV, Lot: 315. Estimate $400. Sold for $3300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Mid to late 4th century BC. AR Drachm (19mm, 6.02 g, 12h). Head of the nymph Larissa three-quarter facing l., wearing ampyx, pendant earring and plain necklace with drop in the middle; border of dots / ΛΑΡΙΣ above, ΑΙΩΝ below, horse r., preparing to roll. Ward 444 (same dies); see also Leu 42 (12 May 1987) 211; Bruun Rasmussen 367 (6 October 1977) 81 (both from the same pair of dies). Good VF, nicely toned, the reverse slightly double struck and with some very light handling marks (?) on the horse’s body; a majestic portrait of the finest style.

It was not surprising for this collector to find out that a coin from these dies was one of the few Ward coins that were retained by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and not sold in the well known Sotheby Ward sale of April 1973. We read in the foreword of the auction catalogue of the resolution passed by the Metropolitan Trustees that the museum would “confine itself to the development of its collections of coins and medals which have a value as works of art or as illustrations of the history of the fine arts.” And so this lovely portrait, a die duplicate of which is offered with this lot, will always be at the Metropolitan as an example of the very best in Numismatic Art.