PHILISTIA (PALESTINE). Uncertain mint. Late 5th-early 4th century BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 16.00 g, 9 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves and palmette; on cheek, 𐡔 (Š in Aramaic). Rev. ΑΘΕ Owl standing right, head facing; to left, olive sprig and crescent; all within incuse square. Gitler & Tal -. Jeselsohn -. SNG ANS 3 (same dies). Of the highest rarity, perhaps the second and certainly the finest known example. An exceptional piece with a clear Aramaic letter on Athena's cheek and a fine pedigree. A few faint marks, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



L. Gentelli, G. Davis, F. Albarède, J. Blichert-Toff, and H. Gitler have shown in a newly published article that the vast majority of the supposedly local imitations of Athenian tetradrachms found in the Levant, and for that reason often attributed to Philistine workshops, are in fact official Athenian issues (When is an owl not an owl? An analysis of Attic tetradrachms circulating in the southern Levant in the late fifth and fourth centuries BCE, in: JAS Reports 70 (2026), pp. 1-11).

All the more important, therefore, are those pieces that can be identified with certainty as products of local Philistine workshops on the basis of their typology or their Aramaic inscriptions. Our beautiful example belongs to this group, bearing on Athena’s cheek the Aramaic letter 𐡔 (Š). This is probably not an ethnic designation, since other specimens bear different letters (cf. p. 3, fig. 9 of the article cited above). The precise significance of these letters therefore remains unclear.