Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 741. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Bizya. Philip I. 244-249 AD. Æ Medallic 40mm (33.69 gm). AVT M IOVL FILIPPOC AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / BIZUHNWN, Hygieia and Asclepius seated, facing one another, small Telesphorus behind Hygieia, serpent staff beside Asclepius, who is accepting a poured offering from a standing woman; serpent twined around tree in background. Youroukova 130 ; BMC Thrace -; SNG Copenhagen -; Mionnet I, pg. 375, 78; Bernhard 134. Good VF, dark green patina, flan crack, graffiti in field between Hygieia and Asklepius. ($3000)

The reverse of this medallic bronze features one of the more complex medical scenes on ancient coinage. Here, a woman pours a libation into a patera which Asclepius holds; the god is flanked by his daughter, Hygieia, and his son, Telesphorus. Two ancient medical symbols, a serpent coiled around a tree and a snake-entwined staff, accompany the figures, balancing a magnificent composition which was almost certainly copied from a monumental piece of art, such as a painting, mosaic, or sculptural group. (For another provincial coin depicting the Greek medical triad in a more traditional pose, see lot 749.)