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Auction 21  28 Jan 2023
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Lot 33

Starting price: 6000 CHF
Price realized: 9500 CHF
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Thessalie - Pharsalos
Drachme (dernier quart du Ve siècle)
Très rare et magnifique exemplaire.
Exemplaire de la collection BCD vente Triton XV du 3 janvier 2012, N°645 et de la vente Palombo 19 du 12 décembre 2020, N°35.
Cet exemplaire publié dans : S. Lavva.
Die Münzprägung von Pharsalos, Saarbrucken 2001
p. 170, N° 144h (coins V68/R84)
6.03g - Lavva 144h (cet exemplaire)
Superbe – AU

The letters ΤΘ on the obverse could allow an attribution of the obverse-die to an engraver mentioned by Pliny the Elder, Telephanes circa 420-400 BC: see S. Lavva, " Telephanes Phoceus", in W. Leschhorn, A.V.B. Miron, A. Miron (eds), Hellas und der griechische Osten. Festschrift P.R. Franke, Saarbrucken 1996, pp. 65-78. A name for the engraver of the reverse, which bear the letters Φ A Σ P, has not been suggested (yet?). As noted by Alan Walker (catalogue Nomos 4, N° 1288), " It seems very likely that the engravers who worked at Pharsalos were also involved with the coinage of Magna Graecia, especially that of Thurium: the heads of Athena are remarkably similar in both places"""". These coins were certainly struck before the victory of Medelos of Larissa at Pharsalos, circa 395 BC. " Medius, the lord of Larissa in Thessaly, was at war with Lycophron, the tyrant of Pherae, and when he asked for aid to be sent him, the Council dispatched to him two thousand soldiers. After the troops had arrived Medius seized Pharsalus, in which there was a garrison of Lacedaemonians, and sold the inhabitants as booty"
(Diodorus XIV.82.5-6)
Estimation: CHF 7.000
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