Provenance. A Coin of Pharkadon

I am now at the point that - with the exception of a few coins which rarely come up at auctions, or which are prohibitively expensive when they do - I have a broad range of coins which represent my collecting interests in Greek coins. Rather than stop collecting and enjoy the fruits of 6 years labour, I have found myself casting around for new areas of interest. However, what I have also been doing is starting to pay a lot more attention to the provenance of coins - who owned them previously and how far back they can be traced. Obviously it is impossible to trace the history of a coin back through the chains of ownership to the mint it was produced at, but there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that the coin you have has been collected, researched and cherished by other collectors. If that coin has also been published in research papers or noted publications (so called plate coins) then there is an additional thrill of knowing that the coin has been seen and appreciated more widely, as well as the comfort that the coins is more likely to be genuine if an expert in the area has seen fit to include it in a publication.

Of course, due to these reasons there is an increased demand for coins with good provenance which translates into higher hammer costs at auction, unless you are one of those few dedicated individuals who will buy a coin on instinct and the successfully research and establish a provenance for it. I would love some day to have the requisite knowledge to do so. However, in the meantime estabished provenance is what I am looking for and have acquired in this coin. This hemidrachm was owned by Hughes de Nanteuil, who published his collection (including this coin) in his work "Collection de Monnaies Grecques" in 1925.

Collection de Monnaies Grecques - Ref 852

Pharkadon began to mint fractional silver coinage in the mid-5th century BC on the Aiginetic standard (12.2g didrachm). This hemidrachm is extremely similar to the coinage of Trikka, to the extent where you could believe that they were produced at the same mint with different ethnics being added to the reverse die. The hero wrestling the bull on the obverse is traditionally identified as Thessalos. Production of these hemidrachms ceased in the later 5th century BC, with all silver coinage terminating by the early fourth century BC.

Comparing Trikka to Pharkadon hemidrachm