Watch List notes:

Uncertain Levantine Mint, silver half shekel or didrachm, late 5th to 4th centuries BC, in imitation of Athenian coinage, head of Athena right wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with spiral palmette, three olive leaves and a pattern effect below the crest, rev., Α – Θ – Ε, owl standing facing with spread wings; olive sprig in upper left field, 6.83g, die axis 4.00, slight encrustation, very fine, apparently unpublished and possibly unique. Provenance: Manhattan Sale II, New York, 4 January 211, lot 72. Note: This unusual coin of eastern style imitates the designs found on the famous decadrachms struck at Athens in the 460s BC. Athenian tetradrachms found their way to the eastern Mediterranean lands and Egypt in trade and were extensively copied locally. This coin however stands apart from these and could perhaps be compared to the drachms of the so-called Philisto-Arabian series depicting a female head on the obverse and a facing owl on the reverse much as is found here (cf. BMC p. 177, 8-11; cf. SNG ANS 32). These drachms however bear Aramaic inscriptions (apparently denoting the mint of Ascalon in Palestine) instead of the Greek letters found on the present coin. (1500 - 2000 GBP)