Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 281. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 370-360 BC. AR Drachm (6.06 gm, 2h). ALEU, head of Aleuas facing slightly left, wearing conical helmet; bipennis behind / [L]ARISAIA, eagle standing right, head left, on thunderbolt; ELLA to left. Herrmann Group VIII, pl. VII, 11; BMC Thessaly pg. 29, 12; SNG Copenhagen -; Jameson 2469; Gulbenkian 473 (all from the same dies). Good VF, reverse struck a touch off-center. Rare. ($2500)

A number of theories surround this enigmatic issue, unique in the Larissan coinage. The most widely-accepted interpretations are those propounded by C. Seltman and M. Sordi. For Seltman (in Greek Coins, pg. 161), Aleuas (founder of the Thessalian ruling house) is depicted to promote the claim of Hellokrates, an Aleuad noble, against Alexander of Pherai in 361 BC. Supporting this contention is the legend on the reverse, ELLA, seen as a contracted form of Hellokrates. M. Sordi ("La drachma di Aleuas e l'origine di un tipo monetario di Alessandro Magno," Annali 3 [1956]), however, has dated this type to the reign of Alexander III of Macedon. Upon Alexander’s accession, he became lagas of Thessaly, and Sordi suggests that Alexander issued this coinage to emphasize the joint ancestry of the Thessalian and Macedonian royalty, both of whom descended from Dodona in Epeiros. Sordi notes that, along with Epeirote coins, this type is also found on early issues of Alexander III of Macedon (the ‘eagle’ coinage, cf. Price pl. CXLIII). Although each of these are somewhat compelling, unless further corroboration is discovered, a final determination between these theories is unlikely.