PHILISTIA. Azotos (Ashdod). Circa 420-350 BCE. Mʿh = Obol (Silver, 9 mm, 0.68 g, 12 h). Head of Athena to right, with eastern-style coiffure surmounted by a helmet crest. Rev. Owl standing right, head facing, left wing uplifted; to left, 𐡀 (ʾ in Aramaic); to right, 𐡔 (Š in Aramaic) above head of a horse to right; all within guilloche-pattern square border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal I.1Ob corr. (this coin, but eastern-style coiffure not noted). Hendin -. Jeselsohn 2 corr. (same dies, but eastern-style coiffure not noted). Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Extremely rare, apparently one of just three known examples of this highly interesting issue. Nicely toned and well struck on a full flan. Minor die break on the obverse, otherwise, very fine.



This piece is remarkable in two respects. First, it appears hitherto to have gone unnoticed that Athena is not wearing a full helmet decorated with three olive leaves and a palmette on the bowl, but that her head is instead rendered as a hybrid combination of eastern-style coiffure and helmet crest. A close parallel is provided by lot 12 (Gitler & Tal II.13D) below.

Second, we encounter here a striking variation on the Attic owl: it raises its left wing, lending the design an entirely new sense of dynamism. On the corresponding drachms, moreover, the left wing terminates in a horned (?) lion’s head (Gitler & Tal I.1D), a charming detail that could hardly be accommodated on the smaller mʾhs.