Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 95

THE NEW YORK SALE

Persian Period - Samaria and Judah

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 2		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Silver Gerah (0.45 g), ca. 375-332 BCE. Head of Athena right, wearing Attic helmet decorated with olive wreath. Rev. 'YHD' (Yehud), owl standing right, head facing; in upper left field, lily. (TJC 4; Hendin 1050). Toned with some encrustation on the obverse. Very fine. Estimate $500UP Purchased privately from D. Hendin, August 1988. A Judaean imitation of the internationally recognized types of Athenian coinage, but with the usual olive spray of the reverse converted into the lily symbol of Jerusalem. The inordinately large olive leaves on Athena's helmet foreshadow the crenellated crown of later issues featuring the head of the Persian Great King (or debased Athena?). View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 3		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Silver Gerah (0.44 g), ca. 375-332 BCE. Head of Athena right, wearing Attic helmet decorated with olive wreath. Rev. 'YHD' (Yehud; retrograde), owl standing left, head facing; in upper right field, olive spray. (TJC 5; Hendin 1051). Attractive dark find patina. Toned. Extremely fine. Estimate $1,500UP Ex Dr. Jonathan A. Herbst Collection (Superior, 8-9 December 1995), lot 1063. This coin closely imitates the Athena and owl types of contemporary Athenian coinage, but depicts the owl standing left and the olive spray to right in contrast to the usual right-facing bird and olive spray in the upper left corner. This reversal suggests that the reverse die was produced by an inexperienced engraver who failed to cut the mirror image of the intended final design. He has also erroneously cut the legend so that it appears retrograde on the coin. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $1,652
Lot 4		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Silver Gerah (0.45 g), ca. 375-332 BCE. Head of Persian king wearing jagged crown right; below the head, a circular motif due to a clashed die error. Rev. 'YHD' (Yehud), owl standing right, head facing; in upper left field, lily. (TJC 6; Hendin 1057). Toned. Extremely fine. Estimate $2,000UP Purchased privately from H. Kriendler at the NYINC, December 1987. This coin combines types related to the two competing influences on Judaean political and monetary affairs in the fourth century BCE. The obverse features a stylized head wearing a crenellated crown - almost certainly intended to represent the Persian Great King who ruled over Judaea as the administrative district of Yehud - and an owl copied from contemporary coins of Athens, whose coins had become an international symbol of good money despite frequent Athenian conflict with Persian interests. Here, the olive spray that normally accompanies the owl on official Athenian coins has been transformed into a lily, the emblem of Jerusalem. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $3,422
Lot 5		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Silver 1/2 Gerah (0.33 g), ca. 375-332 BCE. Lily. Rev. 'YHD' (Yehud), falcon with wings displayed, head turned to right. (TJC 15; Hendin 1060). Darkly toned. Unusually well centered. Among the finest in existence. Extremely fine. Estimate $2,500UP Ex Dr. Jonathan A. Herbst Collection (Superior, 8-9 December 1995), lot 1058. The obverse of this coin proudly identifies itself as produced in Jerusalem through the prominent lily type. This became so well estab-lished as the badge of the city and its local rulers that it appeared on later Seleukid coins struck by the High Priest John Hyrcanus I for Antiochos VII Sidetes in 132-130 BCE, and Hyrcanus' descendant, the Priest-King Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE). View details and enlarged photos	Realized $2,950
Lot 6		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Silver 1/2 Gerah (0.24 g), ca. 375-332 BCE. Lily. Rev. 'YHD' (Yehud), falcon with wings displayed, head turned to right. (TJC 15; Hendin 1060). Dark find patina. About extremely fine. Estimate $2,000UP Purchased privately from D. Hendin at the NYINC, December 1988. View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 7		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.22 g), ca. 375-332 BCE. Youthful male head left. Rev. 'YHZQYH' (Yehezqio - Hezekiah), forepart of winged and horned lynx left. (TJC 24; Hendin 1065). Attractive find patina. Well centered and sharply struck. Toned. Superb extremely fine. Estimate $2,000UP Purchased privately at the NYINC, January 2002. This remarkable coin names Hezekiah, who is usually identified as a High Priest of Jerusalem serving as governor of Judaea in the late Persian period. Lorber and Gitler have argued that the use of the Persic weight standard for this issue seems to support this dating, alt-hough it is also possible that it was struck shortly after the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great in 333/2 BC. Subsequent issues of Hezekiah feature the Attic standard favored by Alexander, but the young male head on this Persic-weight issue seems out of place in the late Persian period. Could it be a local portrait of Alexander himself? The peculiar lynx-griffin type of the reverse reflects local taste - similar creatures occur on Philistian and Samarian coinages of the fourth century BCE. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $2,714
Lot 8		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.22 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Facing head within beaded circular border. Rev. 'HPHH YHZQYH' (Yehezqio the governor - Hezekiah), owl standing right, head facing; in lower right field, Greek letter A. (cf. TJC 22 (without Greek A); cf. Hendin 1069 (same)). Outstanding. Toned. Extremely fine. Estimate $1,500UP Purchased privately, December 2001. In contrast to the earlier issue of Hezekiah in this sale, this one and its two fellows were struck to the Attic standard favored for the coinages of Alexander the Great. This abandonment of the former Persic standard has led to the conclusion that they postdate the Macedonian conquest of Judaea. The coins of the Macedonian period also give Hezekiah his official title as ha pecha, the governor. The reverse type depicts the Athenian owl, perhaps partly to signal the new use of the Attic weight standard, but also looking back to the traditions of the Yehud coinage of the Persian period. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $2,124
Lot 9		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.19 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Facing head within beaded circular border. Rev. 'HPHH [YHZQYH]' (Yehezqio the governor - Hezekiah), owl standing right, head facing. (TJC 22; L. Mildenberg, "Jehud: A Preliminary Study of the Provincial Coinage of Judaea," Essays Thompsn pl. 22, 16 (this coin); Hendin 1069). Nicely toned. About extremely fine. Estimate $1,500UP Purchased privately from NFA, August 1988. Historical Notes on Lot 9, 10 and 11: In the scroll (Megillah) of the Jewish holiday of Purim, the king Achashverus of Persia sent letters to the governors (ha'phechos) of all his provinces, including Israel, to destroy the Jews as proposed by the wicked Haman. These coins are from Judea and noted on them is Hezekia, the governor (ha'phecha) of Judah. (Chapter 3:12) at the actual time of the Purim narrative. View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 10		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.18 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Facing head without beaded circular border (obscured?). Rev. 'HPHH YHZQYH' (Yehezqio the governor - Hezekiah), owl standing right, head facing. (cf. TJC 22 (beaded border); cf. Hendin 1069 (same)). Particularly bold and sharp legend. Toned. Very Fine / Extremely fine. Estimate $1,500UP Ex Abraham Bromberg Collection, II (Superior, 10 December 1992), lot 319. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $1,888
Lot 11		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.18 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Facing head within beaded circular border. Rev. 'HPHH YHZQYH' (Yehezqio the governor - Hezekiah; blundered legend), owl standing right, head facing. (TJC 23; Hendin 1069a). Lightly toned. Very fine. Estimate $1,000UP Purchased privately from D. Hendin, May 1991. View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 12		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.37 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Head of chimaera right. Rev. 'YHWDH (Yehud), duck (or dove?) standing right, head turned to look back. (TJC 27; Hendin 1075). Toned. Very fine. Estimate $1,500UP Purchased privately at the NYINC, January 2002. The obverse type of this coin has undergone a dramatic shift since it was first published by Meshorer. It was originally described as the head of a horse, but Lorber and Gitler have shown that when the type is rotated a few degrees to the left it becomes recognizable as a crude left-facing lion's head. While the horse's head seemed an odd iconographic choice, the lion's head has parallels in Samarian and Philistian coinage of the fourth century BCE. However, here the head clearly faces to the right, and Hendin refers to it as the head of a chimaera. The bird on the reverse is often described as a duck, but it is almost certainly a dove - a common sacrificial animal in the Jerusalem Temple. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $2,301
Lot 13		Judaea, Yehud (Judah). Hezekiah. Silver 1/2 Ma'ah Obol (0.30 g), ca. 333/2-302/1 BCE. Head of chimaera right, degraded to the shaped of an egg or pellet. Rev. 'YHWDH (Yehud), duck standing right, head turned to look back. (TJC 27; Hendin 1075c). Toned. Very fine. Estimate $1,500UP Purchased privately from H. Kriendler, June 1988. View details and enlarged photos	Unsold