Watch List notes:

JUDAEA, After 353 BC. AR Athens Style Tetradrachm (17.25 gm). Head of Ahena, c/m and grafitto in Aramatic letter: Shin Beth, Daleth and Beth / Owl in incuse square. vanAlfen.p96,fig5.16. Kroll.p4,fig1c. Toned VF+. The shape of the flan of this Athenian pi-style tetradrachm, along with the layering of the sides, indicates that the coin is restruck from a flattened and folded-over earlier Athenian coin. The Aramaic graffito reveals that this coin circulated in the Levant. The practice of graffiti on coins seems to be a phenomenon confined to the Levant. Deliberate incisions first appear on silver issues of the Persian period (fifth-fourth centuries BC) and become common during Hellenistic times (fourth-third centuries BC). This phenomenon is also well attested on Late Roman and Byzantine solidi, and on the Umayyad gold dinars after the reform by 'Abd al-Malik. It is evident that graffiti may have had a dissimilar function in different periods and several theories have been suggested regarding their meaning. It has been proposed that they represent initials or letter combinations that served as personal marks or secret identifications of owners, money-changers and merchants. It has also been suggested that they might have been aids to counting and reckoning. The most detailed review of the phenomenon appears in Elayi and Lemaire 1998, pp. 15–19.