Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 603. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Thespiai. Early-mid 4th century BC. AR Hemiobol (0.48 g, 1h). Half Boiotian shield / Horizontal crescent facing downward; star of eight rays within; QE(three-barred sigma) below; all within incuse circle. Imhoof-Blumer, Boeotiens, 155; Traité III 368. VF, even light grey tone, minor porosity, slight dig near centre of reverse. Extremely rare, one of two known (the other in Berlin). ($500)

At Thespiai, as is the case with Tanagra, anything silver below the value of an obol seems to have been a rather scarce commodity. Apparently the plentiful shield/trident bronzes, valued one chalkous each (see Picard, "L'Antre Corycien," BCH IX, 1984 p. 288, 43-46), served the needs of the locals better than the minuscule silver fractions which could easily be lost or broken. But these bronzes, which were struck in the name of the Boiotians, were issued after 338 BC. This means that, earlier in the 4th century, Tanagra, Thespiai, and the other Boiotian cities, with the exception perhaps of Orchomenos who had its own bronze (see lot 225 above), must have used mostly Theban silver and bronze for their small change.