Sale: Nomos 8, Lot: 119. Estimate CHF2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 21 October 2013.  Sold For CHF3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Gomphoi-Philippolis. Circa 350 BC. Hemidrachm (Silver, 16mm, 2.77 g 12). Head of Hera facing, wearing stephane, pendant earrings and a solid, torc-like necklace. Rev. ΦΙΛΙΠΠ-ΟΠΟΛΙ[ΤΩΝ] Zeus Palamnaios, draped to the waist and with his torso bare, seated on rock to left, holding long scepter in his right hand and resting his left on the rock; to left, thunderbolt. Unpublished but for its appearance as BCD 1041 (this coin), though another piece, from the Empedocles Collection, is in the Numismatic Museum in Athens. Of the greatest rarity, the finest example known, and of splendid style with a charming head of Hera. Crystalized surfaces and minor edge scrape, otherwise, extremely fine.

From an American Collection and from the BCD Collection, Nomos 4, 10 May 2011, 1041.

This coin bears one of the loveliest facing heads to be found in all 4th century coinage, not only those from Greece, and it is quite simply a masterpiece of engraving.