The New York Sale
Auction 39 10 January 2017
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ANCIENT JEWISH COINS, PERSIAN PERIOD, SAMARIA AND JUDAH, Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.37 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Head of chimaera right. Rev. 'YHWDH (Yehud), duck (or dove?) standing right, head turned to look back. (TJC 27; Hendin 1075). Toned. Very fine.
Purchased privately at the NYINC, January 2002.
The obverse type of this coin has undergone a dramatic shift since it was first published by Meshorer. It was originally described as the head of a horse, but Lorber and Gitler have shown that when the type is rotated a few degrees to the left it becomes recognizable as a crude left-facing lion's head. While the horse's head seemed an odd iconographic choice, the lion's head has parallels in Samarian and Philistian coinage of the fourth century BCE. However, here the head clearly faces to the right, and Hendin refers to it as the head of a chimaera. The bird on the reverse is often described as a duck, but it is almost certainly a dove - a common sacrificial animal in the Jerusalem Temple.
Estimate: $ 1,500
Purchased privately at the NYINC, January 2002.
The obverse type of this coin has undergone a dramatic shift since it was first published by Meshorer. It was originally described as the head of a horse, but Lorber and Gitler have shown that when the type is rotated a few degrees to the left it becomes recognizable as a crude left-facing lion's head. While the horse's head seemed an odd iconographic choice, the lion's head has parallels in Samarian and Philistian coinage of the fourth century BCE. However, here the head clearly faces to the right, and Hendin refers to it as the head of a chimaera. The bird on the reverse is often described as a duck, but it is almost certainly a dove - a common sacrificial animal in the Jerusalem Temple.
Estimate: $ 1,500