Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 865. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 356-342 BC. AR Stater (12.18 g, 12h). Diademed head of the nymph Larissa, with flowing hair, facing slightly left, wearing single-pendant earring and necklace / LARI-SAIWN, muscular horse prancing right, wearing loose bridle bound near nape of neck. Lorber, Hoard phase L-III, 64-68 var. (position of ethnic); Herrmann Group VII, pl. V, 1; SNG Copenhagen 119 var. (same); BMC 55 var. (same); McClean 4611; Weber 2848; Dewing 1397. Good VF, toned, die break on reverse. Exceptional style. ($2500)

The style of the obverse of this stater is exceptional compared to other published specimens. Most of the known specimens feature a "chubby" nymph that is common during this period. As seen among the drachms, however, there apparently were a number of dies that had a more refined style, perhaps from the hand of a master engraver. The present stater, while retaining features that place it firmly within this period, such as the horn-like hair at the top of Larissa's head, exhibits this more refined style. Her features are more delicate, lacking the stylized "chubbiness" of the period. Perhaps more noticeable, though, is her hair. Typically, the nymph's hair is displayed in three sections: the hair on her right side extends straight out in roughly parallel lines of similar thickness, each with a series of waves at standard intervals. The hair at the top of her head flows from under the amphyx and forms large hornlike features. The hair on her left side, down to her ear, also blows outward as on her right side, but below the ear two or three strands extend downward from the hair above. In contrast, on the present stater her hair flows far more naturally, freely radiating outward from her face in lines of varying thickness and length. Unlike other series whose master engravers signed their pieces, this coin is unsigned but is certainly a product of a highly skilled artist.