427, Lot: 140. Estimate $100. Sold for $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 479-460 BC. AR Drachm (16mm, 5.09 g, 5h). Horse left, grazing with head lowered; [above, cicada left] / ΛAR[I]-SAEON around from lower left, sandal of Jason left within incuse square. BCD Thessaly –; Herrmann Group I, pl. I, 3 = Traité pl. XLIII, 3 = BMC Thessaly p. 24, 2 (same rev. die); HGC 4, 393; Triton VIII, lot 278 (same dies; hammer $5500). VF, toned, some porosity, off center on obverse. Very rare variety with this form of ethnic.

The Sandal of Jason series is the earliest coinage at Larissa, consisting of all denominations from drachms to tetartemoria. The series is characterized by the depiction of a sandal in incuse on the reverse of the drachms, hemidrachms, and obols, while the hemiobols and tetartemoria only have the city ethnic. For a recent survey of this coinage, and its connection to the mythological Jason, son of Aison, king of Thessaly, see J. Kagan, “The so-called Persian weight coins of Larissa” in Obolos 7.