Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 120 6-7 Oct 2020
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Judaea, under Ptolemaic occupation
Ptolemy II Philadelphos, 283/2-246. Triobol, Jerusalem circa 272-261, AR 1.49 g. Diademed head of Ptolemy I r. Rev. yhdh Eagle with spread wings standing l. on thunderbolt. CPE 709 (this obverse die). TJC 31a. Hendin 1085. Gitler and Lorber, Group 7, 14.
Extremely rare, apparently only six specimens known. An intriguing and
important issue, light old cabinet tone and good very fine
Ex Ira & Larry Goldberg sale 110, 2019, 1655. From the S. Moussaieff and the Aba Neeman collections.
This extremely rare silver fraction seems to indicate a special status for Jerusalem and the surrounding territory of Judaea within the early Ptolemaic kingdom. Already in the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (305-282 BC), steps had been taken to create a closed economy for Egypt and its dependencies in which a reduced-weight tetradrachm of ca. 14.3 g became the standard silver coin and lower denominations were produced only in bronze with face values much higher than the value of the metal. This was done because Egypt was a country with few silver resources (although it was rich in gold and copper). Judaea, however, initially seems to have been exempt from these developments, producing a fractional silver coinage into the reign of Ptolemy II.
The portrait of Ptolemy I and standing eagle types of this triobol are taken directly from the standard Ptolemaic tetradrachm, which regularly featured the head of the dynastic founder on the obverse and the eagle dynastic badge on the reverse. Ptolemaic court mythology claimed that an eagle had saved Ptolemy I from death as a baby. However, unlike the standard Ptolemaic tetradrachm, which always names "King Ptolemy" in Greek on the reverse, this coin features a paleo-Hebrew legend naming the province of "Yehudah." This dramatic departure from Ptolemaic custom gives the coin a similar flavor to the quasi-municipal coinages issued under the Seleucids in the second century BC and raises questions about the true authority behind the production of the triobol. The types reflect the Ptolemaic central authority, but the paleo-Hebrew legend points to the direct involvement of the priestly elite of Jerusalem.
There remains much debate about the use of paleo-Hebrew script in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is generally assumed that this script had ceased to be read by the bulk of the population by this time. Therefore, legends such as that of the present triobol served for the most part as symbols, harking back to the to the time when Jerusalem had its own kings and was not subject to foreign overlords, rather than serving to transmit textual information.
Ptolemy II Philadelphos, 283/2-246. Triobol, Jerusalem circa 272-261, AR 1.49 g. Diademed head of Ptolemy I r. Rev. yhdh Eagle with spread wings standing l. on thunderbolt. CPE 709 (this obverse die). TJC 31a. Hendin 1085. Gitler and Lorber, Group 7, 14.
Extremely rare, apparently only six specimens known. An intriguing and
important issue, light old cabinet tone and good very fine
Ex Ira & Larry Goldberg sale 110, 2019, 1655. From the S. Moussaieff and the Aba Neeman collections.
This extremely rare silver fraction seems to indicate a special status for Jerusalem and the surrounding territory of Judaea within the early Ptolemaic kingdom. Already in the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (305-282 BC), steps had been taken to create a closed economy for Egypt and its dependencies in which a reduced-weight tetradrachm of ca. 14.3 g became the standard silver coin and lower denominations were produced only in bronze with face values much higher than the value of the metal. This was done because Egypt was a country with few silver resources (although it was rich in gold and copper). Judaea, however, initially seems to have been exempt from these developments, producing a fractional silver coinage into the reign of Ptolemy II.
The portrait of Ptolemy I and standing eagle types of this triobol are taken directly from the standard Ptolemaic tetradrachm, which regularly featured the head of the dynastic founder on the obverse and the eagle dynastic badge on the reverse. Ptolemaic court mythology claimed that an eagle had saved Ptolemy I from death as a baby. However, unlike the standard Ptolemaic tetradrachm, which always names "King Ptolemy" in Greek on the reverse, this coin features a paleo-Hebrew legend naming the province of "Yehudah." This dramatic departure from Ptolemaic custom gives the coin a similar flavor to the quasi-municipal coinages issued under the Seleucids in the second century BC and raises questions about the true authority behind the production of the triobol. The types reflect the Ptolemaic central authority, but the paleo-Hebrew legend points to the direct involvement of the priestly elite of Jerusalem.
There remains much debate about the use of paleo-Hebrew script in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is generally assumed that this script had ceased to be read by the bulk of the population by this time. Therefore, legends such as that of the present triobol served for the most part as symbols, harking back to the to the time when Jerusalem had its own kings and was not subject to foreign overlords, rather than serving to transmit textual information.