PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Philistian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 16 mm, 3.55 g, 12 h). Bearded male head to right, hair gathered at the back and wearing pearl necklace, within circular guilloche-pattern border. Rev. Youthful male head to right, hair gathered at the back and wearing pearl necklace, within dotted square border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal XVI.7Da (this coin). Eshel pl. 6, 1 (same dies). Hendin -. Jeselsohn -. Mildenberg, Imagery, pl. 2, 29. Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Extremely rare and the finest known example. A beautiful coin with expressive, finely rendered heads and a perfectly centered reverse. Somewhat rough and the obverse struck slightly off center, otherwise, about extremely fine.



What is most striking about this coin is the close similarity between the two heads. The only differences are that the obverse head is fully bearded and shown within a circular guilloche border, whereas the reverse head is unbearded and appears within a dotted square border. The facial features, hairstyle and necklace are otherwise identical. We may therefore assume with considerable confidence that the head on the reverse is male as well.

The artist may perhaps be playing here with the contrast between youth and age: the bearded, older head on the obverse is answered on the reverse by its youthful counterpart. The deeply impressed incuse square, framed by the dotted border, further enhances this sense of separation, almost as if the reverse offered a second, more distant image of the same figure at an earlier stage of life – a window into the past.