311, Lot: 233. Estimate $100. Sold for $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Perrhaiboi. Circa 462/1-460 BC. AR Obol (12mm, 0.83 g, 12h). Head and neck of bull right, the head turned to face the viewer; above, “star” composed of pellet between two horizontal lines / Π–E, head and neck of bridled horse right; all within incuse square. Liampi, Corpus 1c (V1/R1), pl. 5, 22 (this coin); BCD Thessaly II 537 (same dies). VF, toned, granular surfaces.

From the BCD Collection. Ex Tkalec (26 March 1991), lot 116.

A note from BCD from the Triton sale (from lot 541, but pertaining also to lot 537): The star on the obverse of this hemidrachm connects it with the drachm of Nomos 4, 1238 and the obol lot 537 above. On this last one, instead of a star, we see a pellet between two horizontal lines, as if there was not enough vertical space on the die to engrave a complete star. See however G. Hirsch 248 (6 February 2007) 1341 (an obverse die match for lot 537 above), where the attempt to add some vertical lines above the pellet is clearly visible. The die cutter tried his best to show that the dies of this obol were by the same hand as those of the drachm and the hemidrachm. Was this star an early artist’s ‘signature’ or did it have some other ancestral significance for the tribe of Perrhaiboi?