Achilles, Thetis, and a hippocamp...

walk into a bar...

Okay they didn't but feel free to devise a punch line .

This fun little coin feeds my hippocamp addiction

The type was on "the list" for a while and the time was right. Another ex- @ab initio too (Thanks for preserving the auction ephemera!)


THESSALY, Larissa Kremaste
4th century BCE
Æ Trichalkon; 16mm, 6.0 g
Obv: head of Achilles left
Rev: ΛΑΡΙ; Thetis, holding shield of Achilles with AX (=Achilles) monogram, seated left on hippocamp
Ref: BCD Thessaly I –; BCD Thessaly II 403.1; HGC 4, 13
Ex BCD Collection
Ex Hopper Collection (Sotheby’s, 9 March 1989), lot 519 (part)





No big pseudo-scholarly or funny writeup this time although the coin certainly deserves a better effort than this. I'm too tired to do it (work work work ).

Thetis: sea goddess, shape-changer, leader of the fifty Nereides, and mother of Achilles. You can read more about her here.


J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu. Apulian red figure, c. 425 - 401 BCE. Thetis on hippocamp. Image from http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P12.4A.html

...

Feel free to pile on with your hippocamps, Achilles, or whatever else fits

 

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"Fun" is right and an excellent addition.
Thanks for sharing.
(Like the presentation, too.)

 

Fantastic little coin TIF, and interesting background story, congrats great pick up.

 

Very cool coin and with a provenance to boot!

The closest I have to a hippocamp is this capricorn:


Cornelia Supera, wife of Aemelian, Augusta, 253 CE
Roman provincial Æ 20.5mm, 3.78 gm
Mysia, Parium, 253 CE
Obv: G CORN SUPERA, diademed and draped bust right.
Rev: C. G. I. H. P., Capricorn right, cornucopia on back; globe between legs (Sear describes as a star, but this appears to be a globe).
Refs: SGI 4408 (var.); SNG Von Aulock 7448

 

Nice coin @TIF. I have a couple Gallienus hippocamps

 

Very nice OP coin, with the best pedigree.

BCD = Super Hero!

From the Beginning...

 

Lovely piece TIF! Any coin featuring a hippocamp is aces in my book. Congrats!

 

Neat coin @TIF ! Really like that. Nice succinct write up!

I only have this one hippocamp:

Sicily Syracuse ca 410 BC AE 19 Athena Wreath Hippocamp

 

Beautiful coin! Thetis holding the shield of Achilles is cool enough as it is... And riding a hippocamp?? Definitely on The List.

 

I don't have achilles, thetis, or a hippocamp!

Sweet green patina, nice 6 gram little chunker...WIN!

 

Thats really an awesome coin. Gorgeous patina and subject matter.....and you got all that documentation to boot.

 

Another super cool coin TIF!!!

 

I gotta hippocamp but it is totally boring compared to TIF's latest effort.

 

TIF => wow, that's a sweet BCD example ... yah, but I won't post my sweet Larissa examples (that'd be wrong, right?)

Ah, screw it ... here they come (yah, they're land-horses, rather than water-horses)

Thessaly Larissa




Oh, and I may as well post my sweet hippocamp as well, eh? (I know that you have an even sweeter example, on-deck)

Syracuse, AE Litra



=> congrats again on scoring your sweet new OP-winner!!

 

nice koin! i luv me some seahorses, but ain't got any on a coin, just one i ride around on

 

i believe my old bud from college posed for the 4th reverse (walk like an egyptian><). nice coins stevers!

 

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ROMAN REPUBLIC, Moneyer Q. Crepereius M.f. Rocus. 69 BCE. AR serrate denarius


SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysius I. 400-335 BCE. Athena/hippocamp


PHOENICIA, Byblos. Uzibaal. 350-335 BCE. AR dishekel


PHOENICIA, Berytos. 1st century BCE. Æ19.5, 5.9 gm


Sicily, Syracuse. AE 13, c. 425 BCE. Arethusa(?)/hippocamp & octopus

 

Giddy-up, li'l seahorsey!


CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Didrachm. 7.74g, 22mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 280 BC. Vlasto 700; HN Italy 968. O: Helmeted naked warrior with shield jumping off horse galloping left; EY behind, NIKΩTTAΣ below. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthus of Tarentum, holding trident and short spear, riding dolphin right; below, hippocamp right, ΣOP to left.
Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 81 (1997), Lot 67

 

Very neat coin Tif!

 

Congrats TIF , beautifull coin, looks a bit like a Giraffocamp
Those Thessalians are no match for the Syracusians concerning Hippocamp coins.
Your Dionysius I hippocamp is nummero uno, here's mine: