Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 139. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Federal Coinage. Circa 225-171 BC. AR Drachm (5.03 g, 12h). Laureate head of Poseidon right, border of dots / Nike standing left, resting on sceptre and holding wreath; BOIWTWN downward on left; to inner left, club downward. Pozzi (Boutin) 3316; E. Vlachogianni, "A hoard of coins from Thebes," NomKhron 19 (2000), p. 78 (pl. I), 449; J. Hirsch XIII (15 May 1905), lot 1698. Superb EF, dark old toning with red and blue hues around the devices. Struck from artistic dies, especially the reverse. ($750)

Ex Robert L. Grover Collection (Superior 11 June 1986), lot 1050.

It seems that in these late issues Nike did not always hold a trident. Margaret Thompson thought that the alternative is a spear (Agrinion p. 13, 160a and 160b) but here we clearly have a sceptre. In the 1997 Thebes excavations hoard (see above ref.) no mention is made of a sceptre and it is very difficult to judge the existence of one or not from the photographs.