Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 408. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $350. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Thebes. Circa 425-375 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.62 g). Boiotian shield / Kantharos; club above, Q-EB across lower field; all in square incuse. Head, Boeotia p. 36, class b, pl. III, 7 = BMC p. 75, 64, pl. XIII, 10; SNG Cop. 289. Good VF, even grey tone, moderate reverse granularity. Well centered and struck. ($300)

These hemidrachms (lots 408 to 412) are found quite often in 4th century Thessalian hoards mixed with the corresponding League issues (see lots 21 to 32 above) and other Thessalian civic or even regal Macedonian coinages. In general they are a little more worn than their Boiotian counterparts but this is not enough to arrive at an absolute date that is much narrower than the half century which is adopted here. A likely scenario would be that they have been issued at intervals during the last quarter of the 5th century and possibly only a decade or so into the 4th. This Q-E? issue without a symbol or a letter seems to be the earliest amongst the five different varieties that comprise this group.