THRACE. Alopekonnesos. Circa 300 BC. (Bronze, 19 mm, 5.39 g, 11 h). Head of youthful Dionysos to right, wearing ivy-wreath. Rev. Α/Λ-Ω/Π-Ε/Κ Kantharos to left, grape bunch; to right, monogram above fox running to right. Yarkin 77. Cf. HGC 3.2, 1301. Very rare. Green patina. Very fine.

From the collection of a scholar.

Alopekonessos, or Fox Island in Greek, was located along the northwestern coast of the Thracian Chersonese. It was settled by Aeolian colonists sometime before the sixth century BC at a location where they had seen a fox and her cub, which, according to tradition, an oracle had instructed them to do. The Thracians held a special significance for the fox, which were sacred to the Thracian goddess of the hunt, Bendis. She was typically depicted in art wearing a cap made from the pelt of a fox (an alopekis ), and according to Herodotus similar fox-skin headdresses were worn by Thracian soldiers.