Nomos 12

THESSALY, Phaloria (?). Late 5th - early 4th century BC. Obol (Silver, 11mm, 0.91 g 12). Horse trotting to left, with fallen rein. Rev. ΦΑ[Λ] Bull butting to left. Unpublished save for Nomos 4, 2011, 1275 (same dies, but there ascribed to Pharkadon). Of great rarity, the second example known. Surfaces very slightly rough and with a die break at the top center of the reverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.

From a European collection, formed before 2005.

One of the extraordinary facts about the BCD collection, including all of its parts, is how after being published in sales catalogues, other examples of the great rarities that it contained (or lacked) suddenly turned up. The present coin is the second known, and better preserved, example of one of the most exciting pieces that appeared in BCD Thessaly. In Nomos 4 the coin was ascribed to Pharkadon because there appeared to be a ghost of a rho on the reverse (albeit almost totally obscured by a nasty edge die-break). However, on this piece the clear remains of a diagonal line can be seen following the letters ΦΑ on the reverse. This can only be the left-hand hasta of a lambda. As such the identification of Pharkadon has to be dropped, leaving us with either Phalanna or Phaloria. I have ascribed the coin to more obscure mint of Phaloria because that mint has no known coinage prior to the mid/early 4th century, so this coin could easily fit in, while Phalanna, which also lacks an early 4th century coinage, does have a coinage of the second half of the century, one which seems much more iconographically fixed and lacks anything even vaguely similar to this coin.