Lot 3445

Description

Samaria, Satrap issue, (375-345 B.C.), silver obol, (0.58 grams), obv. head of Athena to left, wearing crested helmet, rev. lion attacking stag to right, above and around in Aramaic, traces of SMRYN, (Meshorer & Qedar "Coinage of Samaria" (CS), CS 5 (29 known), and Samaria Hoard No.53 (CS), (this coin illustrated and described). Very fine for issue and very rare.

Ex Samaria Hoard (No.53) and Sotheby, Zurich Sale, October 27-8, 1993 (lot 985 part) and Noble Numismatics Auction Sale 51 (lot 2241). This lot and several other lots in this sale represent an opportunity to acquire different examples 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 existance of coins of a country never previously recognised in numismatic literature. The legend which reads Samaria, remains uncertain, 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 Biblical coins.