Triton XV, Lot: 528. Estimate $100. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Pelinna. Late 3rd to early 2nd centuries BC. Æ Chalkous (?) (13.5mm, 1.59 g, 10h). Head of Mantho veiled r., linear border / [Π]ΕΛINNAIΩN above circular, helmeted Thessalian rider wearing chlamys, charging r. with couched lance on prancing horse. Rogers 434, fig. 235. Near VF, green patina; the rev. a little off centre; a very rare denomination.

Acquired from Dr. Michael Brandt, January 1991, for DM 200.

This small coin is appreciably smaller than the big Mantho/rider issues and could easily be a hemichalkous rather than a chalkous. Unless of course the Mantho /rider coins are trichalka, in which case it could easily be a chalkous. During the latter part of the third century and well into the second, the production of Thessalian city coinages must have dwindled down to almost nothing and the small quantities that were occasionally struck were mostly trichalka and tetrachalka, the lower values becoming obsolete with the advent of inflation. This coin is an anomaly and that is why it is so rare. Rogers could only record the BM coin, calling it a ‘second denomination’.