THRACO-MACEDONIAN REGION. Uncertain. Circa 450-400 BC. Hemiobol (Silver, 9 mm, 0.30 g, 3 h). Nude male figure riding dolphin to right. Rev. Facing head of a bull within pelleted square within incuse square. Apparently unpublished and of great interest. Somewhat rough, otherwise, very fine.


Exactly where this unexpected coin was issued is unclear. The types are apparently unrecorded, but style and fabric, as well as the small pelleted incuse reverse square, point toward a mint in western Thrace or in the Thraco-Macedonian region. The closest parallels are very rare hemiobols showing a dolphin-rider with two pellets in the fields on the obverse and a quadripartite incuse square on the reverse (The New York Sale VII (2004), 200 ('Caria, uncertain'), CNG 69 (2005), 135 ('Macedon, uncertain') and Solidus 9 (2016), 64 ('Thasos')), but these coins not only have different types, they are also of different fabric and style.