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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Extremely Rare & Interesting Drachm

292, Lot: 9. Estimate $500.
Sold for $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 460 BC. AR Drachm (17mm, 5.12 g, 12h). Horse grazing left; above, kerykeion (caduceus) to left; below, spitz-type dog standing left, head right; bow in exergue / ΛARI-SAIO-N (S and N retrograde) counterclockwise from lower left, sandal of Jason left; above, double-axe right; all within incuse square. SNR 30 (1943), p. 39, 23 and pl. II, 23 (same obv. die); otherwise unpublised. Near VF, toned, porosity and surface corrosion. Extremely rare.


From the BCD Collection.

This coin is only the third known Larissa drachm to carry the caduceus and spitz-type dog, all of which may be from the same obverse die, the other two being the specimen cited above, published by P. Lederer, and BCD Thessaly II, lot 144 (= J. Kagan, “The so-called Persian weight coins of Larissa,” Obolos 7 pl. 2, 4). The latter of these varies in the following details of the reverse: hammer points in opposite direction; hammer and sandal within square linear frame; and different arrangement of ethnic. The bow symbol is largely off the flan on the specimen published by Lederer, who thought the string of the bow to be part of a double ground line, and is so faint on the previously offered BCD coin to have gone unmentioned in the Triton sale and Kagan’s article.

Lederer was the first to identify the dog as a “Spitzhund” and noted the occurrence of this type of dog on Macedonian coinage, most notably as a companion to Alexander I on the famous oktadrachms of the king dating to around 460 BC (see AMNG p. 152, 30; SNG Alpha Bank 72), which provides an approximate date for the current coin. The caduceus also appears on coinage of Alexander I (see SNG Alpha Bank 4, 20, 55ff), leading Kagan to comment (p. 84): “I think we can say with some certainty that the influence went north to south rather than the other way...”

What to make of the bow in the exergue? It is not a prominent feature on any Macedonian coinages from the period, and its exact purpose or influence is uncertain.