Nomos 4

THESSALY. Kierion. Circa 400-360 BC. Hemiobol (Silver, 0.43 g, 9 h). Laureate head of Zeus to left, with pointed, rather ‘archaic’ beard; behind head, thunderbolt. Rev. Κ-Ι Head of Arne to right, her hair bound in a sakkos. Traité IV, 514 = HN² p. 293 . Extremely rare and very well preserved. Surfaces slightly porous. Nearly extremely fine.

This astonishingly rare coin has long been thought to bear a head of Poseidon because of the object on the obverse, previously identified as a trident. In fact, as can be seen on this better preserved example,what we have is a rather schematic thunderbolt. Not only is the head of Zeus on this hemiobol very similar, indeed, to that on the dichalkon that follows, the figure of Arne on the dichalkon is also clearly wearing a sakkos as well!