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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1968013, member: 42773&quot;]I&#039;ve posted my AE type set of Rabbel II before, but recently cherry-picked a coin that I thought I might never come across. Rabbel ascended the throne in 70 AD as a young man, under the regency of his mother, Shaqilat II. The bronzes struck from 70 to 75/76 are engraved in a delicate, classical style (Coin 1). After he marries Gamilat in 76 AD, the style becomes coarse and thick (Coin 3), and eventually rather primitive (Coin 4).</p><p><br /></p><p>The new coin in my collection is Coin 2, which represents the earliest engraving style among the Rabbel/Gamilat bronzes. In fact, Meshorer thought these were mules, wherein some of the leftover Rabbel/Shaqilat obverse dies were used to mint the coins of the new queen. I&#039;m not so sure. The reverse of Coin 2 also exhibits the delicate style of the earlier pieces, particularly in the lettering. I believe these &quot;classical style&quot; Rabbel/Gamilat units are extremely rare. Meshorer cataloged one, and I&#039;ve only seen one other in real life. Viewing the coins in a row demonstrates the progression of the style...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]348621[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I was also surprised to find a rare bronze of Obodas II on the market recently, the second coin with eagle reverse. I&#039;ve paired it with another type that I posted earlier in my broken coins thread. Any of the bronze types of Obodas are scarce, to say the least, and to find one of the eagle types with a sizable chunk of lettering on the reverse is a small coup.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]348626[/ATTACH] </p><p>I know you guys aren&#039;t as titillated with Nabataeans as I am, but I do know, as fellow collectors, that you can appreciate my smug satisfaction at filling two important holes.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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