Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 591. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $280. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Thespiai. Early-mid 4th century BC. AR Obol (0.91 g). Boiotian shield / Two vertical crescents back to back; Q-E-(three-barred sigma)-PI anticlockwise inward around from the top; all within incuse circle. Head, Boeotia p. 55, pl. IV, 18 = BMC 1, pl. XVI, 5; SNG Cop. 398-399; SNG Lockett 1764; Dewing 1523. Good VF, even grey tone, minor flan split, minor die breaks on reverse. ($200)

It is probably true to say that, in most cases, the fractions preceded the large denominations when an issue was struck. After all, while there was an ongoing need for fractions, the staters were rather special, struck with more or less specific purposes in mind. For the mint of Thespiai this is probably what happened. The quite pronounced incuse circle of this issue clearly antedates the later obols with just the crescent on the reverse as well as the Aphrodite reverse series which probably came last. This handsome group of staters, hemidrachms, obols and fractions must have all been minted at the same time, with the exception of the "fine style" staters where we can discern not only a different hand for both obverses and reverses but also a different approach to striking.