PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Philistian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 15 mm, 3.82 g, 11 h). Youthful male head to right, wearing pearl necklace. Rev. Facing head of Bes, wearing long beard and plumed headdress flanked by animal protomes, perhaps a horned horse or griffin to left and a lion’s head to right; below, three-row beaded collar; to right, 𐡔 (Š in Aramaic); all within square guilloche-pattern border within incuse square. Babelon, Achéménides, pl. VIII, 21 = Mildenberg, Vestigia, pl. XXXI, 12 (same dies). Gitler & Tal XVIII.1Da (this coin). Hendin -. Jeselsohn -. Shoshana II 20027 (same dies). Sofaer -. Extremely rare, one of just three known examples, and by far the finest of only two in private hands. A superb coin, with a beautifully rendered male head on the obverse and a dramatic, intensely expressive depiction of Bes on the reverse. Struck from a somewhat worn obverse die and with a test cut on the reverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



This magnificent drachm shows on its reverse a particularly impressive representation of Bes, the ancient Egyptian protective deity. He appears in his typical frontal form, long-bearded and full-cheeked, with a bulbous nose and a plumed headdress. Here, however, the headdress is further adorned with two animal protomes turned to left and right: the one on the left may represent a horned animal, perhaps a horse or a griffin, while the one on the right is perhaps leonine. The headdress is reminiscent of the double Bes-heads with a headdress composed of two lions on Gitler & Tal XVIII.8 (see lots 102-103 below) and Gitler & Tal XXVIII.1Da (lot 118 below).

Also of interest is the unusual ‘collar’ below the beard, probably a beaded broad collar of a kind encountered in ancient Egyptian art (cf. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 22.1.248). The same collar also appears on the obols (cf. lot 99 below). This detail proved particularly important in the case of lot 91 above, where it helped to identify the undertype (cf. also Haim Gitler, Mati Johananoff and Oren Tal, Bes (forthcoming)).