Oitaioi

Triton XV, Lot: 487. Estimate $300. Sold for $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

The Oitaioi (IACP, pp. 684-685)

The Oitaioi were a mountain tribe whose capital became Herakleia Trachinia.

Coins were struck there in the name of the Oitaians, at varying times from the 4th to the 2nd century BC.

THESSALY, Oitaioi. Circa 350s BC. AR Hemidrachm (16mm, 2.80 g, 11h). Lion’s head l., spear in its jaws / OIT-AΩИ from top l., down circular retrograde, Herakles, naked, standing facing, holding club with both hands transversely across his chest. Valassiadis 1; SNG Cop. 176; see also Nomos 4, 1211 (same rev. die); Weber 2879 (same obv. die); Egger [18], 10 December 1906, 271 (same rev. die). VF, slightly unevenly toned, otherwise a neat and attractive coin.

Valassiadis initially defines 371 BC and 280 BC as the outer limits for the minting of the finely styled coins of the Oitaians. He then suggests that the earliest issues should date just before the middle of the 4th century BC and not earlier. Hoard information confirms this last dating and also agrees with the sporadic nature of their minting.