Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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Nabataea, Obodas III (or II) AR Didrachm. Petra(?), dated year 6 = 25/4 BC. Bust of Obodas right / Eagle standing to left on thunderbolt; Aramaic inscription 'Abdat the King, King of the Nabataeans' around, Aramaic word for year in right field, date in left field. Meshorer, Nabataea -; DCA -; Hoover & Barkay -. 6.62g, 22mm, 12h.
Near Very Fine. Apparently unique and unpublished.
From a private North American collection.
This apparently unique Nabataean didrachm belongs to the reign of a certain King Obodas. Martin Huth, in 'Some Nabataean Questions Reconsidered' (Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms, pp. 215-7) convincingly argued that there were only two kings named Obodas, and that Obodas II should therefore be removed from the chronology, leaving Obodas III properly as Obodas II.
Only two coins of Obodas I are believed to exist, and though the present specimen (perhaps problematically) utilises a similarly Ptolemaic-style eagle on thunderbolt reverse design as the coins of Obodas I, the portraiture is very different and far more consistent with the coins of the latter Obodas.
Near Very Fine. Apparently unique and unpublished.
From a private North American collection.
This apparently unique Nabataean didrachm belongs to the reign of a certain King Obodas. Martin Huth, in 'Some Nabataean Questions Reconsidered' (Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms, pp. 215-7) convincingly argued that there were only two kings named Obodas, and that Obodas II should therefore be removed from the chronology, leaving Obodas III properly as Obodas II.
Only two coins of Obodas I are believed to exist, and though the present specimen (perhaps problematically) utilises a similarly Ptolemaic-style eagle on thunderbolt reverse design as the coins of Obodas I, the portraiture is very different and far more consistent with the coins of the latter Obodas.