One of Two Known – Missing from BCD

Triton XVIII, Lot: 546. Estimate $500. Sold for $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARKADIA, Heraia. Late 5th-early 4th centuries BC. AR Obol (11.5mm, 0.94 g, 6h). Young Pan, nude, standing right, left foot set on [rock], right hand resting on hip, left elbow resting on knee and left hand holding scepter set on ground to right / Head of Artemis left; H-R flanking neck; all within incuse square. BCD Peloponnesos –; HGC 5, –; BMC 16, pl. XXXIV, 12 = Traité III 1011 [1012], pl. CCXXVIII, 13 = MG p. 191, 203 (same dies). VF, toned, edge splits, light porosity. Extremely rare, the finest of two known (the other in the BM).

This extremely rare issue was previously only known from an example in the BM. Although the photo of the piece in BMC shows a full coin, the illustration of it in Traité clearly shows that the flan has a large piece broken off. Traces of the edge of the break are visible in the BMC photo, though, so it is likely that the coin was “touched up” for publication (not unusual in the BMC plates). Babelon (in Traité) notes the striking similarity of the obverse type with an issue of obols at Parrhaisia (cf. BCD 1595), which, combined with the similarity of the reverse to the obverse of certain obols of Heraia (cf. BCD 1357–8), suggest the issue was struck in the late 5th or early 4th century BC.