Arabia, uncertain mint (Arabia or Persian Gulf region) AR Tetradrachm. In the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon. Circa 180-140 BC. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress / Male figure (Shams?) seated to left, holding sceptre and eagle(?); AΛEΞA[..] to right; in lower left field, a gazelle (or goat?) standing to left, head reverted, above [M?]; in upper left field, unidentified conical object. Cf. Huth 144 = Al-Jawf Hoard (2002) 227; O. Callot, 'Les monnaies dites 'arabes' dans le nord du Golfe arabo-persique à la fin du IIIe siècle avant notre ère' in Failaka, Fouilles Francaises, (Lyon/Paris, 1986-1988), pp. 221-240, fig. 13 = Münzen & Medaillen 367, lot 14; for prototype, cf. Al-Jawf Hoard 240 and Price 2213 (Miletos mint). 15.08g, 28mm, 12h.
Good Very Fine; minor scrape on rev. Extremely Rare; one of three recorded specimens.
This coin belongs to a series of Arabian tetradrachms which Martin Huth has noted are imitations of the tetradrachms struck posthumously in the name of Alexander III at Miletos ('Monetary Circulation in South West Arabia' in M. Huth and P.G. van Alfen, Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms, in Studies in the Monetization of Ancient Arabia, ANSNS 25 (New York, 2010), pp. 96-7). The Arabian imitations depict what has been described by Huth as a gazelle above the letter M (off the flan if present on this specimen) in the left field of the reverse, which is evidently derived from the lion and civic monogram found on the tetradrachms of Miletos. This claim is substantiated by the presence of a Milesian tetradrachm amongst the Arabian imitations found in the Al-Jawf Hoard (see references).
The unidentified 'conical, baetyl(?)-like' object in the upper left field of the reverse of this specimen is absent on the tetradrachms of the main series and is only known on two other coins (see Huth). Its meaning is uncertain although Huth has noted its similarity to an object found on later Abi'el tetradrachms from the Oman Peninsula (see van Alfen, 'A Die Study of the 'Abiel' Coinage of Eastern Arabia' in CCK, p. 579, 175-180).