152, Lot: 81. Estimate $300. Sold for $366. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off TROAS, Tenedos. Circa 550-470 BC. AR Hemidrachm (13mm, 1.78 g). Archaic janiform head, male on left, female on right (Zeus and Hera?), with necklace / TE NE NION (sic), double axe within dotted incuse square. Cf. SNG Copenhagen 506-507; cf. BMC Troas p. 91, 4. Good VF, obverse with horn silver, typical light porosity, unusually well struck.

The obverse is in very fine archaic style, while the reverse is badly blundered, with the mis-spelled ethnic inverted in relation to the type. A curious combination of dies, obviously produced by two workmen of vastly different skills.