SAMARIA. 'Middle Levantine' Series. Circa 375-333 BC. Obol (Silver, 10 mm, 0.60 g, 12 h), imitating Sidon. Phoenician galley to left; 𐤁 ('b' in Aramaic or Phoenician) above, waves below. Rev. Persian king or hero, holding dagger in his right hand, standing right, fighting lion standing left on its hind legs; between them, facing bull's head; all within incuse square. H. Gitler, M. Johananoff and O. Tal: A Corpus of Samarian Coinage (forthcoming), SID.ST. 8 m'h (this coin). Jeselsohn -. Meshorer & Qedar -. Sofaer -. Unpublished and unique. Beautifully toned and in exceptional condition for this series. The obverse struck very slightly off center, otherwise, extremely fine.


This beautifully preserved coin introduces a new variant to the series of Samarian imitations of Sidonian coins: between the Great King and the lion, we can discern the facing head of a bull. The faintly visible ears suggest that this is not a boukranion, i.e., a cultic skull, but rather the depiction of a living bull.