PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Philistian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 15 mm, 3.23 g, 1 h). Bearded male head to left, with eastern-style coiffure surmounted by a helmet crest. Rev. Triform bearded male head within incuse square. Gitler & Tal -, cf. cf. XIX.18D (same obverse die, but differing reverse). Hendin -. Jeselsohn I -, cf. 324 (same obverse die, but differing reverse). Leu Judaica -. Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Unpublished and unique, and of outstanding iconographic importance; the first known depiction of a triform head in Philistian coinage. Somewhat porous and with a test cut on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.


Triform heads are well attested in Samarian coinage; see, for example, Leu Judaica 137 (CSC 4) and Leu 21 (2026), 234 (CSC 203). The motif derives from Cilician prototypes, such as Göktürk 37 and SNG Levante 201-202. The present specimen provides the first evidence for a triform head in Philistian coinage and thus suggests that many of the Greek iconographic influences attested in Samaria may have reached the southern Levant through maritime contacts mediated by the Philistian port cities.