311, Lot: 234. Estimate $100. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Perrhaiboi. Circa 462/1-460 BC. AR Obol (11mm, 0.95 g, 12h). Forepart of bull right, the head turned to face the viewer; all in linear circle with [leaf decorations] / Π–E–[Я]–A (the Я on neck), head and neck of horse right; all within incuse square. Liampi, Corpus p. 109, group F, 2 (O2/R2) corr. (as Pelinna); BCD Thessaly II 539.1 (same dies); Traité IV 579, pl. CCXCIII, 2 corr. (rev. legend; same dies). VF, minor porosity. Rare and interesting.

From the BCD Collection.

Liampi knew of only one specimen of this type, in the British Museum. The wear on that coin led her to read the ethnic as ΠEΛ and thus assign the type to Pelinna.

A note from BCD from the Triton sale: A highly original rendering of both obverse and reverse subjects; the forepart of the bull as against the established head and neck image and the attempt to enclose the subject in a wreath are as innovative as is the writing of a letter from the ethnic on the actual horse figure of the reverse. The writer thinks that this unconventional issue of the Perrhaiboi, given also the fact that it does not die-link with any of the other coins in the series, must have been especially struck for a particular event such as the inauguration of a temple or the inception of a festival.