Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 455. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Thebes. Circa 425-395 BC. AR Stater (11.70 g). Boiotian shield / The infant Herakles seated facing, head right, strangling two serpents; bow to left, club to right, Q-E below; all within circular incuse. SNG Cop. 303 (same rev. die); McClean 5582, pl. 201, 14 (same rev. die); Gulbenkian 503 (same rev. die). VF and toned, with obverse roughness under the toning. Rare. ($1000)

Ex Glendining 27 November 1958, lot 266; Münzen und Medaillen FPL 157 (May 1956), no. 7; H.P.R. Frey 15 April 1955, lot 1084; E. Gans MBS 14 (9 March 1954), lot 370.

This issue of Herakliskos, with the reverse in an incuse circle, is likely to have been struck a little earlier than or at about the same time as the Electrum issue (lot 470 below). The reverse incuse in the Electrum should not be indicative of an earlier date as it is probably intentional: an affectation meant to give these special coins more prestige.