Mid 4th century BC. Obol, 0.86g (10h). Obv: Head of Athena right. Rx: Trident within olive wreath; ΟΡΘΙ around wreath to left. Unpublished. "The city has been known as Orthe to coin collectors because of a mistake in Rogers, The Copper Coinage of Thessaly, confusing it with the acropolis of Phalanna. For the correct name see An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, p. 698. No silver was known for this city up to very recently and this obol is the second known precious metal coin of this mint. For the other see Gorny & Mosch 236, 7 March 2016, lot 177e, a coin from the same pair of dies. Stylistically posterior to the earliest issue (BCD Thessaly 496), this obol is so close to the subsequent bronzes (BCD 497 or BCD 1219) that one could claim the Athena obverse dies are from the same hand. At any rate, the 'mid 4th century BC' date proposed by Walker for these bronze seems about right for the silver obols as well. Quoting Walker again (for Pagasai, Nomos 4, note to lot 1224): 'the coinage… must have only been issued out of civic pride, as a means for the city's citizens to pay for small purchases using their 'own' money, rather than the 'foreign' coins from other Thessalian cities…'. This could equally well apply to Orthos and the precious metal source could be the donation of a wealthy citizen or the local council making available obsolete silver utensils belonging to the city's treasury". --BCD.