Being from Texas I just love cows, normally medium rare, I got this one in the HA weekly auction (auction pic and description): THESSALY. Pharcadon. Ca. 450-375 BC. AR hemiobol (0.48 gm). Head of bull right within dotted circle / Ram standing left within incuse square. HGC 4, 304. BCD Thessaly II 610. Very rare.
Sometimes spelled Pharkadon. The reverse does not look like a ram, but rather another bull. The ram would look more like this: But, hey, I could be wrong. It certainly wouldn't be the first time nor the last.
Howdy, fellow Texan! Although I no longer live there, I visit as often as possible . Nice coin! I don't recall seeing that type before. The reverse looks like a ram to me, with its face off flan. The depression inside the curve of the horn, combined with the off-face flan, makes it look like a bull's head. The rump and tail are ovine rather than bovine. I don't have any Thessalian bulls to share but the OP bull's pose is similar to this one, with more of a longhorn look: EUBOIA, Eretria 357-267 BCE AR drachm, 18 mm, 3.1 gm Obv: head of nymph Eretria left Rev: head of bull facing, fillets from horns, EY above, satyr's head facing in right field [hmm, I can't really make much out of that blob] Ref: Wallace pl. XI, cf 126. ex Frank James Collection ex BCD Collection
I have a liking for horse/bull types. Here is my Pharkadon. Bull wrestling seems to have bee a right of passage in areas of Thessaly and several of the coins illustrate this. Thessaly, Pharkadon, Hemidrachm Obv:– Youth wrestling or restraining bull, both to right. Rev:– F/AR/KAD/O, forepart of galloping horse right Minted in Thessaly, Pharkadon from .c. 440-400 B.C. Ref:– SGCV I 2183; BMC Thessaly p. 42, 1; SNG Cop 209 2.825g, 15.5mm, 0 degrees
Welcome to the forum @JeffM-Houston and congratulations on a wonderful and rare type. My most recent acquisition of Thessaly is also quite rare, from Atrax, which according to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, was 10 Roman miles from Larissa. A dichalkon, c. 360-340 BC... Atrax only produced a small number of coins with magistrates’ names: this is the only type on which the name is written out in full, on the obverse, before the bust: EVBATA. It's a bit weak on this example, but the letters are all discernible.
Great water-wagon, @JBGood ! I keep looking for one of those, but can never find one with as much detail as yours.
Great OP-addition, JeffM Thessaly!! ... oooowww, one of my favourites!! => here are a bunch of my Thessaly sweeties ... Congrats again on your cool new OP-addition ... total winner, JeffM
