Exceptional Mopsion Bronze

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 182. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $18000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Mopsion. Circa 350 BC. Æ 20mm (8.72 g, 12h). Laureate head of Zeus facing slightly right; thunderbolt to right / MOY-EI-WN, the Lapith Mopsos, standing facing, wielding club in left hand, about to strike Centaur who stands left, holding a boulder overhead in both hands. Rogers ; SNG Copenhagen -; McClean 4648. Good VF, attractive brown surfaces. Extremely rare.

From the David Herman Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 69 (8 June 2005), lot 270 (hammer $8,000).

Mopsion, a small town situated on a hill between Larissa and Tempe, was named after Mopsos, the son of Amphykos. He was gifted with the power to understand the speech of birds, and traveled with Jason and the Argonauts as their seer. Mopsos met his death in Libya when he was bitten by a poisonous serpent that had sprung from the blood of Medusa's head.