SAMARIA. Series with place names and related types. Circa 375-332 BCE. Half Mʿh = Hemiobol (Silver, 6 mm, 0.30 g, 2 h). Bearded head of a satrap (?) to left, wearing Persian headdress bound with a diadem. Rev. The Achaemenid Great King or hero standing right, wearing serrated crown or headdress and holding sword or scepter in his right hand; to left, 𐤁OΔ (?) (BOD or B'D in a mixture of partially retrograde paleo-Hebrew or Phoenician and/or Greek); all within shallow circular incuse. CSC 38. Hendin -. Jeselsohn 31-32. Meshorer & Qedar 21. Shoshana -. Sofaer 168. Wyssmann p. 251, MQ 21. Rare and unusually complete. Minor areas of weakness, otherwise, very fine.



On account of its obverse link to CSC 37, Gitler, Johananoff, and Tal place this issue under 'Place Names, Abbreviations Thereof and Related Coins'. In their commentary, however, they tentatively read the unusual mixed legend as BOD or BʾD, thereby suggesting a connection with CSC 120-133, a series naming an otherwise unattested individual whose name may be read either as Bedayah, 'in the care of YHW', or as Berayah, 'son of YHW'.