420.  Thebes.  Circa  480-456 BC.  AR Drachm  (5.63 gm). Boeotian  shield /
Amphora in  incuse square.  BMC Central Greece  pg. 69, 19;  SNG Copenhagen
261. EF, beautiful dark toning. ($1000)

This rare drachm is from the period after the end of the Persian Wars and
before the Athenian invasion of Boeotia in 456. Most of the Boeotian League
had Medized during the Persian Wars. After the Greek victory, the region
went into a political and economic decline, with little coinage being
produced.



The staters  of the Boeotian Confederacy of the  4th Century are well known
to numismatists.  These staters, struck on  the Aiginetic standard, bear on
the obverse  the usual Boeotian shield and on  the reverse an amphora, with
the addition  of magistrate names and, on  occasion, vines hanging from the
handles or extra symbols  above the amphora. Although the coins do not bear
the  mark  of  an  issuing  city,  Thebes,  as  hegemon  of  the  Boeoetian
Confederacy, was most likely  respsonsible for their issuance. In his study
of  the series,  "The  4th Century  BC Magistrate  Coinage of  the Boiotian
Confederacy,"   in  Numismatica   Khronika  (1998),  Robert   Hepworth  has
identified 44  different magistrates and 97  separate varieties. The series
begins in the early  years of the 4th century and ends at the latest in 335
BC, when  the city was razed  by Alexander the Great.  Through an intensive
die study,  Hepworth has been able  to identify the internal  order of this
series although an absolute chronology still waits to be determined.

The actual  identities of most of  the magistrates remain obscure. However,
the  magistrate abbreviated  as EPP A or E PAM  has been identified  as the
historical  Epaminondas (see  "Epaminondas’Coinage," in Proceedings  of the
10th International Congress of  Numismatics (London 1986), pg. 35-40), who,
at the battle of  Leuctra in 371 BC, successfully led the Boeotians against
the invading Spartan army, thus ending nearly 300 years of Spartan military
supremacy.  Epaminondas  would meet  his  death  in 362  at  the battle  of
Mantinea.

The  following offering  of  Theban staters  is perhaps  the  most complete
grouping  ever  offered at  auction.  The  order for  this section  follows
Hepworth’s die  study, listing the coins in  their relative order of issue,
although  Hepworth numbers appear  out of  order because for  simplicity he
listed the varieties in alphabetical order.


CNG Mail bid sale #58, 18 Sept 2001, lot 420.
 
 Lot sold for $925.


Used by permission of CNG, www.historicalcoins.com