Watch List notes:

Elis, Olympia. Drachm; Elis, Olympia; c. 245/40-210 BC, Drachm, 4.49g. Schwabacher, Num. Chron. 1939, p. 242, 5 (o1/r5, 10 spec.). The rare first issue of this series of Olympian drachms, with pomegranate and pine cone added to the thunderbolt type on reverse. Obv: Eagle with raised wings flying r., holding running hare with talons and tearing at its head with beak. Rx: F - [A] Thunderbolt, with two volutes, pine cone, and nine wavy flame lines above; and two petals, pomegranate, and nine wavy flame lines below. The drachms of this issue were divided by Schwabacher into four groups, based mainly on changes in the depiction of the thunderbolt on the reverse. Groups 2-4, the bulk of the issue, showed the thunderbolt with four volutes above and a pair of wings below, or with four volutes above, two or four more volutes below, and a pair of wings in the middle. Only in Group 1, struck with a single obverse die and five reverse dies, were a pomegranate and a pine cone added to the type, with either the pomegranate at the top of the thunderbolt and the pine cone at the bottom on (four reverse dies), or the pine cone at the top and the pomegranate at the bottom (the fifth reverse die). We assume that our coin with the same rarer pine cone at top type is from that same fifth reverse die, though there is no photograph to confirm that assumption in Schwabacher's article, the BCD catalogue, or CoinArchives Pro. Schwabacher suggests that the pomegranate and pine cone added to Zeus' thunderbolt in Group 1 of this issue could refer to otherwise unattested cults of Hera and Dionysos respectively at Olympia (p. 254).. VF
($1250)