Nomos 7

BOEOTIA, Thebes. Circa 395 BC. Drachm (Gold, 6.11 g 1). Bearded head of Dionysos to left, wearing ivy wreath. Rev. ΘΕ The infant Herakles, nude, seated facing and holding a coiling serpent by the neck in each hand; above, club to left. Unpublished save for its previous auction appearance. Unique, an exceptional coin of great importance. Minor scrapes on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine.

From the Spina Collection, ex Triton XI, 8 January 2008, 158.

As BCD was wont to say, whenever he was sure that his collection was finished and all the coins possible to have were had, something new would show up! And so, just two years after the magisterial BCD collection of Boeotia appeared in Triton IX, a hitherto unknown gold stater of Thebes appeared in Triton XI! This piece almost certainly has to be closely related to the rare ‘Herakliskos’ silver staters, as well as to the few known electrum hemidrachms and trihemiobols, all of which must have been struck around the start of the 4th century when Thebes was struggling against Spartan hegemony and had received a subsidy of Persian gold. The reverse type of the infant Herakles strangling snakes symbolized this struggle of Thebes and her allies against Sparta.