Reshoot of a Larissa Drachm

Hi Theodosius ... yes, I guess this sweet baby is from the archaic period (well, I personally usually clump all of my incuse coins into that category ... maybe a purest may have slightly different/more-rigid opinion?)

Good eye => man, I love this cool coin, eh? (it is one of my favourites)

=> Here are the coin details (aka, the seller's notes)

THESSALY, Larissa, AR Obol
Circa 460-440 BC
Diameter: 12 mm
Weight: 0.90 grams
Obverse: Horse advancing right; above, head of lion right
Reverse: Λ [Α] RI around from upper left, Larissa standing right, balancing hydria on raised knee; to left, lion’s head fountain right, from which water pours forth; all within incuse square
Reference: BCD Thessaly II 358.1 (same dies)
Other: 9h … VF
From the BCD Collection



Oh, and thanks for asking about it (yah, I'm always happy when I think somebody likes one of my coins)

 

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=> yah, I love that coin too ... hey, did you happen to notice that they spelled (spelt?) AIUN "backwards"? ... pretty neat, eh?



Must have been a party day at the ol' mint?

It's usually like this (see Andres' cool example, immediately below)



... man, it must have been hard to find good help back in those days?

 

I have lived in my current house for 13 years. Some of the lightbulbs in overheads have not been changed in that time. When I do have to change one, I find I really prefer using the newly available daylight (5000 Kelvin) balance LED bulbs rather than the ones that mimic the color of the old fashioned tungsten bulbs (2700 Kelvin). The price of these bulbs has been falling and they advertise them to outlive me. I suspect there will be even better models in five years and I will want to have them.

Certainly many of you will differ on this and are happier with things exactly like they were when you were born. Changing the bulbs in lamps in the room where you do the photography should cure the yellow glare problem. As a long time photographer having to deal with mismatched light colors, I am thrilled to have the option to have inside lights with daylight balance more or less matching the light coming in the windows. I almost guarantee that changing bulb colors will upset someone in you house. I hope it is a subject that your family can all see the same way.

 

Sellers picture:



My picture:

 

Both are decent shots, with something about each I like. Focusing on your image, I might say there is too much light to the left and it's not even across the entire coin. Listen to me. I just take pics and if they are not out of focus I'm happy.

 

Ancients Greeks used to write in different direction. The best example are the epigraphic texts written boustrophedon (ie Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters). For instance, the first line has to be read from left to right, while the second from right to left, and so forth:



On your coin, we can follow the same 'logic'. The Σ in front of the horse gives us the direction:

 

Pretty cool ... thanks for the coin-effort, Prokles

 

You're welcome, Steve!
I am gonna repeat myself: that's a really cool coin! The horse is finely engraved!
...Seems like Thessalians loved their horses (or rather their cavalry)

 

Yeah, it would seem so. Many ancient cultures revered their horses and assigned horse gods such as Epona, a God of horses for the Gauls which was adopted by the Roman Empire. If you read anything about the people of the Steppes, ie., the Sarmations, you will find they loved their horses.