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Obverse: Head of the
nymph Larissa three quarter facing, hair floating loosely.
Reverse: Horse feeding right.
The reference used for
this coin is the British Museum Catalogs on Greek Coins.
A vast plain
enclosed by mountain barriers and drained by the river Peneios, Thessaly
was famed for its horses and horsemen. Larissa and surrounding
communities provided some of the finest horses of the ancient world to
the cities and armies of the Greek states. Each of the cities of
Thessaly made proud use of the horse as civic symbols for their
coinage. The Thessalian pride in their horses comes through in the
caring, realistic representations on their coinage.
Larissa, the
foremost town in Thessaly, was named after a daughter of Pelasgos. It
began issuing coin early in the 5th Century B. C.
This issue
features the head of the nymph Larissa facing. The reverse shows a
grazing horse.
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