PHILISTIA. Gaza. Circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 16 mm, 3.02 g, 11 h). Janiform head composed of a bearded male head to left and a female head to right. Rev. Owl standing facing, wings closed, between olive sprays; in fields, 𐡆-𐡏 (ʿZ in Aramaic); all within circular dotted border within circular incuse. Gitler & Tal V.6Da (same dies). Hendin -. Jeselsohn 60 = Shoshana I 20020. Mildenberg, Vestigia, pl. XXV, 28 (same dies). Sofaer -. Very rare and very likely the finest known example. A beautiful piece with excellent detail and a perfectly centered obverse. Slightly rough and with a test cut on the reverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.



The coinage of Gaza was particularly closely modelled on Athenian prototypes. The present drachm shows a frontally rendered owl; however, this does not derive from the famous Athenian dekadrachms, but rather from Athenian hemidrachms, on which the owl stands between two olive branches (cf. HGC 4, 1641 and Svoronos pl. 10, 28-30). Although these have been reduced here to a single leaf on either side, the iconographic connection is unmistakable. The obverse, by contrast, with its magnificent janiform head, was probably inspired by the late Archaic coinage of Tenedos; cf. Nomos 1 (2009), 95 = Triton XV (2012), 1002 = Numismatica Ars Classica 154 (2025), 1246.