Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 312. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Tanagra. Autonomous issues. 1st century AD. Lot of three Æ. Varieties: (a) Æ 14mm (1.81 g, 8h). TANA/GRAI/WN in three lines within wreath tying below / Winged caduceus; T-A across upper field, N-A across lower field. RPC I 1324.7 (this coin); Head, Boeotia p. 98; BMC 50, pl. X, 11; SNG Cop. 238 // (b) Æ 16mm (2.43 g, 6h). Bust of Livia right; T-[A] across upper field, N - [A] across middle field, G - [R] across lower field / Bearded head of Asopos to right; AC[WPOC] clockwise from the left around. RPC I 1326 corr.; Imhoof-Blumer, Boeotiens, 108 (with line drawing). Extremely rare, probably the second known // (c) Æ 15mm (2.91 g, 1h). Female head right, border of dots / Artemis running right with torch; T-A across upper field, N-A across lower field. RPC I 1327; Head, Boeotia p. 98; SNG Cop. 237. Coins average Fine condition. Three (3) coins in lot. All coins rare. ($300)

(a) with an old ticket by Jacob Hirsch with additional writing in French on the back, probably by the next owner. (b) serves here to correct RPC as follows: On the bottom left of the obverse there is clearly an additional G which indicates that the legend is in three lines and not in two. Furthermore, the obverse portrait is clearly Livia; the resemblance with RPC 1429 (surely Livia - see also Bürrer, pl. 4 for additional reverse dies such as R 86 etc.) confirms this. Asopos (meaning "never silent" - what a nice name for a river!) produced the tallest reeds of any river according to Pausanias 5.14.3. In mythology he was the father of Tanagra, the eponymous nymph of the city.