Triton XV, Lot: 544. Estimate $200. Sold for $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Perrhaiboi. Late 5th century BC. AR Hemidrachm (16mm, 2.68 g, 3h). Hero to r., naked, with petasos and chlamys flying behind his back, holding a band with both his hands passing around the head of a bull’s forepart to right; border of dots / Π-E above, P-A below, forepart of horse to r., all within shallow incuse square. See for same dies Egger XL (2 May 1912) Prowe, 808. VF, lightly toned; minor surface granularity; rev. double struck, showing mostly on the letters; a very rare coin.

The later hemidrachms of the Perrhaiboi are very difficult to find, much more so than the archaic ones; their stylistic affinities to some of the mass produced Trikka hemidrachms suggest that the same artist (or school of artists) produced the dies for both mints. Obviously, the creators of the inspirational designs that characterized some of the earliest Perrhaiboi issues were not available any more and so the Trikka hemidrachms proved to be perfectly adequate for their transactions and those of other Thessalian cities (like Krannon) that did not strike silver around the end of the 5th century.