Triton XV, Lot: 561. Estimate $100. Sold for $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Perrhaiboi. Late 2nd to early 1st century BC. Æ Trichalkon (20mm, 6.50 g, 1h). Laureate and bearded head of Zeus r., border of dots / ΠEPPAI l. up, BΩN r. down, Hera, diademed and draped, seated r. on backless throne, holding long sceptre with her r. and resting her l. on her knee; in field r., between Hera and the letters, a very weak (erased on the die?) thunderbolt. Rogers 440, fig. 239 (same dies). Near VF, fine green patina, a carefully engraved obverse die for the period and an attractive coin.

A charming detail on the rev. die is how the engraver “moved” the A of his inscription out of line so that it would not interfere with the arm of Hera. The erasure of the thunderbolt is also indicative of the ignorance of the die-cutter concerning the identity of the personages on the designs he would engrave on a die. He probably mistook the reverse figure for Zeus and added the thunderbolt before a supervisor caught the mistake and asked him to fill-in the die at that point.