PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Philistian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 15 mm, 3.69 g, 3 h). Janiform head composed of a bearded male head to right and a human face to left (or facing frontally?), the latter rendered in distinctly lower relief; all within circular dotted border within shallow circular incuse. Rev. Lion advancing right above an ibex recumbent right, rendered in incuse outline; all within a dotted square border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal XIX.11Da (this coin). Hendin - Jeselsohn -. Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Unique and of great numismatic importance. A magnificent coin, beautifully toned, with exceptional iconography and an extraordinary combination of raised relief and incuse outline engraving. The obverse struck somewhat off center, otherwise, extremely fine.



This magnificent piece is undoubtedly one of the great highlights of the Leu Judaica Collection. Its unusual combination of iconography, style, and technical execution stands out even within the remarkably inventive world of Philistian coinage.

The obverse shows a janiform human head. One half is formed by a bearded male head facing right, a type familiar from numerous other Philistian coins (cf. lots 34, 64 and 104 above; the last of these is especially close to the present coin because of the lion motif). The other half, unfortunately only partly visible because of the off-center strike, shows a second human face. Unlike the bearded head, it is not rendered in high relief, but is set noticeably deeper and probably faces left, although Gitler and Tal also considered the possibility of a frontal representation. This unusual contrast between the raised bearded head and the more deeply set second face makes the janiform image particularly striking.

Remarkably, a similar contrast appears on the reverse. Here, a lion advances right above a recumbent ibex, also facing right. The contrast between the two animals is expressed not only iconographically, but also technically: the lion is rendered in relief, while the ibex is shown incuse. The two sides of the coin are therefore closely connected by the same visual logic – relief against incuse, dominance against subordination, predator against prey.

The motif of a lion attacking an ibex or related caprid is deeply rooted in ancient Near Eastern pictorial tradition, as illustrated, for example, by a southern Mesopotamian cylinder seal of the 13th century BCE in the Morgan Library & Museum (Morgan Seal 602). The present coin is therefore not an isolated invention, but translates a long-established pictorial scheme into an exceptional numismatic form. While the broader iconographic background is Near Eastern, the adaptation of the motif to coinage may point more directly to a Phoenician, and perhaps Sidonian, milieu. On the coinage of Sidon, caprids appear both as isolated heads and as complete animals, often rendered incuse. Particularly noteworthy are the double shekels from the time of Baʿalšillem I, circa 425-401 BCE, on which the Persian Great King is shown in a chariot above an incuse goat or ibex running left with its head turned back. Here, too, the caprid is placed beneath the dominant image and rendered in a reduced, incuse form – a striking parallel for the visual hierarchy on the present coin.

The type is equally remarkable from a technical point of view. First, all three known denominations belonging to this group – the present drachm, as well as the likewise unique obol and hemiobol (Gitler & Tal XXIX.11DOa and XXIX.12DHOa) – are off-center on the obverse in a strikingly similar manner. This correspondence is unlikely to be accidental and probably reflects a technical factor. Secondly, both the present drachm and the obol display an obverse incuse. Coins with incuses on both sides are extremely unusual. Normally, the obverse die was set into an anvil, so that no incuse could be produced on that side; alternatively, the obverse die was considerably broader than the reverse die, causing the flan to bulge only over the reverse die during striking. In the present case, however, the obverse die seems to have had only a narrow border and to have been used without being deeply set into an anvil.

It is this combination of unusual iconography, ancient Near Eastern pictorial tradition, and technical originality that makes the coin one of the most fascinating issues of Philistian coinage.