Watch List notes:

THESSALY. Pharkadon. Late 5th - early 4th century BC. Obol (Silver, 12 mm, 0.86 g, 10 h). Horse walking to right. Rev. Φ-Α-Ρ-Κ (partially retrograde) Herakles standing right, nude but for lion's skin wrapped over his left arm, holding bow in his left hand and resting his right on club with its head on the ground; all within shallow incuse square. BCD Thessaly I 1274 (same dies). Of very fine style and with a beautifully made reverse. Scratch on the obverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.



The Herakles figure on the reverse of this small coin is masterfully done and beautifully engraved. While it would seem that the later silver fractions of Pharkadon are much rarer than the earlier ones, the engravers who made them were artists of great talent; thus, it is possible that these issues were made as donatives in small numbers.