ARABIA, Eastern. Gerrha/Thaj (?). Early series with vertical Shin, circa 230-200 BCE. Tetradrachm (Silver, 28 mm, 16.46 g, 11 h), imitating Alexander 'the Great' (336-323 BCE). Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. AΛEΞANΔPOY Zeus/Shams seated left on low throne, holding long scepter in his left hand and eagle standing right with closed wings in his right; to left, 𐩦 ('s²' in South Arabian, vertically). Arnold-Biucchi 1. CCK 111-112 var. (later style). Mørkholm, Bahrain, series I B (inscription type 1). Rare. Nicely toned and of attractive very early style. Cleaning scratches and somewhat smoothed, and with a graffito of Φ on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.


The imitations with vertical shin are best known from the 211 examples in the 1970 Bahrain hoard (IGCH 1765), all of which today can be found in the Bahrain museum. They appear to have been struck over a long period and circulated within a wide area from Failaka to the Oman Peninsula, coming in many styles and with 14 different variations of the reverse inscription. This example exhibits a particularly early style, close to the Greek originals, and very likely dates to the late 3rd century BCE rather than to the 2nd.