Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 238. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Plataiai. 387-372 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.46 g). Boiotian shield / PLA, draped bust of Hera facing, wearing stephanos. Head, Boeotia p. 50, pl. IV, 15 = BMC 2, pl. IX, 4 = Traité III 331, pl. CCIII, 30; SNG Cop. 212; Weber 3223. VF, slightly patchy tone, reverse weakly struck. Extremely rare, only a few specimens known, apparenly all from the same pair of dies. ($500)

The British Museum Catalogue illustrates a pierced and badly worn specimen of this coin. Subsequently, when they acquired a better one which was not pierced, they auctioned their duplicate in Naville-Ars Classica V (18 June 1923), lot 1893. The hammer price for the pierced coin was 8 Swiss Francs and at the same auction, a nicely centered, attractive VF or better Babylon mint Alexander the Great Tetradrachm (lot 1456) was sold for 26 Swiss Francs.