Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 308. Estimate $400.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Tanagra. Augustus(?). 27 BC-14 AD. Lot of two Æ. Varieties: (a) Æ 18mm (6.38 g, 12h). Bare head right; behind, countermark: palm branch / Tripod; TANA downward on right, GRAIWN downward on left. RPC I 1314.3 (this coin) // (b) Æ 16mm (3.49 g). Bare head right / TANA/GRAIW/N in three lines within wreath tying below. RPC I 1315.5 (this coin); SNG Cop. 236. Both coins Fine and extremely rare, (a) unique with countermark. Two (2) coins in lot. ($400)

The 'uncertain' countermark mentioned in RPC is surely a palm branch. The Tanagra Provincials were quite a puzzle to the RPC cataloguers mainly because the few known specimens from each type are in such deplorable condition. This also means that their metrology can not be understood as there are too few recorded pieces to provide a secure weight pattern. The two pieces in this lot are, according to the RPC, the only ones in private hands if we exclude two more like (b), also in the BCD collection.