Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 40. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Federal Coinage. Circa 395-340 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.72 g). Boiotian shield of distinctive style / Kantharos; above, club right; BO-I across lower field; to lower left, vertical crescent facing left; all within concave circle. Head, Boeotia p. 78; Traité III p. 311, 370, pl. CCIV, 34; SNG Fitzwilliam 2966. Near EF, well struck and centered. ($200)

Ex Spink Noble (Australia) 38 (18 March 1992), lot 1586.

Hansjorg Bloesch in his publication of the Winterthur Greek Coins dates this issue to the years after the liberation of the Kadmeia by the Theban Nationalists. The style of the shield on this coin as well as on lots 41 and 44 below is quite different from all the "mainstream" hemidrachms of the League. In fact, coins with the crescent symbol on the reverse are also found with another unusual shield shape on the obverse (see lot 42). One can not avoid thinking that these crescent issues were struck at different times or by different mints, or both.