Mati Johananoff, Tel Aviv University
A Case of Competing Attributions: Small Anepigraphic Levantine Silver Coins with a Female Head and an Eagle on a Thunderbolt
Abstract: Possible attributions of small anepigraphic silver coin types portraying a female head wearing a flat crown on the obverse and an eagle standing on a thunderbolt (sometimes alongside a club) on the reverse are discussed. A coin belonging to this group was published by Meshorer and Qedar in 1999 and tentatively attributed to Samaria. This uncertain attribution is revisited considering new specimens documented as part of the “Corpus of Samarian Coinage” project. The suggested attribution is analyzed against competing attributions to Phoenicia (Tyre), Cyprus (Paphos), Cilicia (uncertain mint) and Manbog/Hierapolis-Bambyke (Syria) considering the relevant numismatic, historical, and archaeological sources. It is concluded that these coin types were most probably minted in Samaria after the Macedonian conquest and should be dated to the reign of Ptolemy I. Since no such coin types are known from controlled archaeological provenances, it is suggested that this likely attribution should, however, remain uncertain. Methodologically, case by case, cross-regional, traditional numismatic analysis, still offers the best available tool for the study of such uncertain attributions.
Key words: Levantine coins, Samaria, Early Hellenistic, uncertain attributions
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52800/ajst.1.18.a2
Johananoff, M. 2023. “A Case of Competing Attributions: Small Anepigraphic Levantine Silver Coins with a Female Head and an Eagle on a Thunderbolt”, Notae Numismaticae – Zapiski Numizmatyczne 18: 31–48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52800/ajst.1.18.a2
