SAMARIA. Series with personal names and miscellaneous letters. Sanballat (?), governor of Samaria, circa 430-407 BCE. Mʿh = Obol (Silver, 9 mm, 0.70 g, 12 h). Two bearded (?) soldiers standing face to face, each holding spear and round shield; all within a dotted square border. Rev. Two bearded soldiers standing face to face, each holding spear and round shield; the right figure rendered incuse except for the shield boss, which is in relief; all within incuse square. CSC 72. Hendin -. Jeselsohn 76-78. Meshorer & Qedar 50. NH -. Samuels, Rynearson & Meshorer, Legacy, 25. Shoshana I 20041 = Sofaer 163. Wyssmann p. 260, MQ 50. Very rare and among the finest known examples. Beautifully toned and very well centered. About extremely fine.



Although anepigraphic, the present type may be placed, on account of its close iconographic relationship with CSC 71, within the orbit of the so-called Sanballat group of Samarian coinage (see lot 122 above and 124 below). A proper understanding of its imagery is therefore important. In the earlier auction commentary on this coin in Leu 75 (1999), 1323, it was suggested that 'the differing headdresses worn by the two soldiers on the obverse of this small coin clearly indicate that one is a Persian while the other is probably a Greek mercenary […]'. Although interesting, this interpretation is ultimately untenable. It presupposes a Persian–Greek contrast for which the coin itself provides no evidence and turns an uncertain observation concerning the shape of the head into an ethnic identification.

Comparison with other specimens argues against this interpretation, and the supposed helmet worn by the soldier on the right is no more than an optical illusion (cf. CSC 72a–b). The reverse, too, evidently repeats the same motif as the obverse, albeit in a charming incuse adaptation, with the shield rendered in relief; on the drachm in lot 121 above, the shield is instead rendered as a facing head of Bes. Both figures are bearded and similarly armed. The figure on the left on the reverse lacks a shield, although he may be carrying a quiver over his shoulder. In both their appearance and equipment, the figures are far more closely comparable to Persian guards than to a scene contrasting a Persian soldier with a Greek mercenary.

The closest numismatic parallel occurs on staters from Tarsos dating to the second half of the fifth century BCE, on which two spearmen equipped with quivers face one another (Traité II.2, pl. CVI, 6). It is entirely conceivable that the present type was directly inspired by these Cilician models, although both ultimately draw upon the visual repertoire of imperial Achaemenid art. The closest iconographic parallels are provided by the Persian guards depicted on the Apadana stairway at Persepolis, where bearded soldiers shown in profile carry spears and round or rounded shields with central bosses, sometimes arranged in opposing groups.

The present type is therefore best understood not as depicting a Persian confronting a Greek mercenary, but as a local Samarian adaptation of an Achaemenid military motif, firmly rooted in the visual language of the Achaemenid Empire.