| Nomos AG > Auction 35 | Auction date: 15 June 2025 |
| Lot number: 517 Price realized: 11,000 CHF (Approx. 13,547 USD / 11,734 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: ARABIA, North Arabia (?). Circa 1st century CE. (Gold, 25 mm, 9.65 g, 6 h). Around, legend in an uncertain script Female bust to left, wearing a crown-like headdress bearing small, upright, oval ornaments, with her hair long and falling down behind her neck, and with her shoulder indicated by a line of crescents; in the field to right, 'flower' (a lotus?) on a long, vertical stem. Rev. Around, legend in an uncertain script Male bust to left, wearing a crown-like headdress bearing large, upright, oval ornaments, a bushy moustache, with his hair long and falling down behind his neck, and a garment ornamented with chevrons over his right shoulder; in the field to right, 'flower' (a lotus?) on a long, vertical stem. M. Huth, Gold Coins, in P. van Alfen and M. Huth, Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms, ANSNS 25 (New York, 2010), pp. 125-132, but especially p. 130 and and pl. 16, 10 and 10a (same dies). Extremely rare. Apparently the third example known. Struck from crudely made dies copying contemporary issues of the Nabataeans. Seemingly double-struck from worn dies, some scratches and pitting, and possible traces of mounting, otherwise, good very fine. Once in the collection of the late Jalal al-Din Mangburni and thence by succession. Although the legends of this enigmatic gold issue have yet to be read, some of the letters have been recognized as likely being derived from known North Arabian scripts. In addition, the other two published examples were reportedly found in the area of the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan, thus, lending support to a North Arabian origin. And, of course, the types of the busts of a 'queen' and a 'king' also find parallels in the coinage of the Nabataean king Aretas IV (9 BCE-CE 40). The curious fact that this coin weighs 9.65 g, while the weights of the other two cited by Huth are both supposedly "c. 12.5 g", (taken from their original 2001 publication in Damascus - in Arabic; those two coins have not been independently examined), can be explained by a recording error: not unlikely considering that these coins' original publisher, A. Skeif, dated them to the early first millennium BCE!!! Estimate: 7500 CHF |  |
