290, Lot: 58. Estimate $200. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Orthe. Late 4th-early 3rd centuries BC. Æ Trichalkon (21mm, 9.87 g, 11h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet with coiled serpent on bowl / OPΘIEIΩN, forepart of horse right emerging from rock on which grows an olive tree; all within wreath. Rogers 421; BCD Thessaly II 500 (hammer of $4250). VF, brown patina. Good strike. A heavy example.

From the BCD Collection.

Ancient Thessaly was so intricately tied with the equestrian arts that both were believed to have been created at the same time. According to myth, the Thessalian plain was once covered by water. After Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, the mountains split to form a channel, the waters receded, and the first horse Skyphios burst forth.