Nomos 8

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 420-400 BC. Trihemiobol (Silver, 13mm, 1.10 g 5). Small, round shield, with dotted border, bearing as a device a bull’s hoof to right; all within an outer dotted border. Rev. ΛΑΡΙ Diademed bust of Asklepios to right, wearing long beard and with slight drapery over his chest; before him, snake turned to right. BCD 1120 (this coin). Herrmann F/G IIIβ II, II and pl. III, 15 var (there a horse’s hoof). Traité 690 and pl. CCXCVII, 23. Very rare, beautifully preserved and with a superb head of Asklepios. Extremely fine.

From an American Collection and from the BCD Collection, Nomos 4, 10 May 2011, 1120.

This wonderful coin serves as a perfect parallel to the unusually magnificent fractions issued in contemporary Sicily. Those coins were issued in small numbers and must have initially served as donatives given away by local magnates; the present coin seems to be one of a small number of coins that were produced in Thessaly for the same purposes. They can be distinguished from more normal issues by their exceptional style and quality and, interestingly enough, by their low value: after all, they were meant to be given to numerous people, perhaps even thrown to them.