Lot 3468

Description

Samaria, Satrap issue, (375-345 B.C.), silver hemiobol, (0.35 grams), obv. female head (Arethusa?), facing, border of dots, rev. head of bearded male or satrap to l., wearing crested Athenian helmet, to left in Aramaic SMRYN, (Meshorer & Qedar 'Coinage of Samaria' (CS), CS 3 (43 known), and Samaria Hoard No.121 (CS), (This Coin illustrated and described). Nearly very fine for issue, and very rare.

Ex. Samaria Hoard (No.121) and Sotheby, Zurich Sale, October 27-8, 1993 (lot 985 part). This lot represents an opportunity to acquire an example from the famous 'Samaria Hoard' published in Meshorer & Qedar 'Coinage of Samaria in the Fourth Century BCE', Jerusalem, 1991. Every coin in that hoard in illustrated with enlargements and this hoard together with a few other finds became the basis of establishing the existence of a series for a country in an era never previously recognised in the published literature. The legend which reads Samaria, remains uncertain as to whether it means the city, the province or the state, or a combination of these meanings. By c.400 B.C, the Samaritans were still considered Jewish and as such were approached by the Jews of Elephantine. The Samaritan high priests and governors in the 5th and 4th century B.C. in the Elephantine documents bear Jewish names. The final separation between the Samaritans and the Jews probably took place a few years after the Samarian hoard's burial (c.346-5 B.C.). Consequently this small group of coins form part of a collection of some of the earliest Jewish coins.