Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 304. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $190. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Tanagra. Early-mid 4th century BC. AR Hemiobol (0.44 g). Half Boiotian shield / Horse's head right; T-A flanking; all within incuse flat circle with curved edge. Head, Boeotia p. 52; Imhoof-Blumer, Münzkunde, 72; Traité III 352, pl. CCIV, 16 = BMC 41; SNG Cop. 233. Good VF, dark grey tone, minor roughness. Extremely rare. ($300)

For some reason, and in contrast to the large numbers of horse-forepart obols, Tanagra seems to have produced a limited quantity of smaller fractions during the 4th century. This coin is earlier than another hemiobol in Cambridge (see SNG Fitzwilliam 2898) and probably the same dies as the BMC coin although this last one is not illustrated (see the different height levels which the BMC cataloguer has indicated for the letters T and A in his text).