PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Athenian-styled, circa early 340s-332 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 14 mm, 3.83 g, 6 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves and palmette. Rev. Owl standing right, head facing; to left, olive sprig and crescent; to right, Α☉Ε; in right field, 𐡒 (?) (Q in Aramaic); all within incuse square. Gitler & Tal XI.3D. Hendin 6048 (as Yehud). Jeselsohn 91 corr. (same dies, but misdescribed as Gitler & Tal V.20D) and 168-169. Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Extremely rare and among the finest of a very few known examples. Struck on the typical short flan and slightly rough, otherwise, good very fine.



The attribution of this extremely rare type has long posed difficulties. The letter between the owl and the Athenian ethnic legend resembles the mem (𐡌) found on coins of Gaza (cf. lots 45-48 above), but is not identical to it. Hendin reads it as a retrograde 𐤉 (Y in Paleo-Hebrew) and therefore regards the coin as one of the earliest issues from Yehud. H. Gitler and O. Tal, by contrast, prefer to read it as 𐡒 (Q in Aramaic) and attribute the type to a Philistine mint. We follow their interpretation here.