Thessaly - Pharsalos - Drachma (last quarter of... Lot 35

Thessaly - Pharsalos - Drachma (last quarter of the 5th century). Very rare and magnificent specimen. Copy of the collection BCD sale Triton XV of January 3, 2012, N°645. This copy published in: S. Lavva, Die Münzprägung von Pharsalos, Saarbrucken 2001, p. 170, No. 144h (V68/R84 corners) 6.03g - Lavva 144h (this copy) Superb - 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).