JA's Levantine

Coins of the Levant comprise a substantial part of my collecting interests, so I'll be posting all my new acquisitions in this thread. Here is the latest new arrival, a Roman provincial of Gadara.

Syria, Decapolis, Gadara. Faustina II, Augusta, 147-175 AD.
AE 20mm, 7.89 gm, 12h. Dated CY 225. 161/2 AD.
Obv.: ΦAVCTINA CEBATH, draped bust right.
Rev.: ΓAΔAPEΩN EKC (date), laureate and draped bust of Zeus right.
References: Spijkerman 49 (same dies); Rosenberger IV 51 (same dies); SNG ANS 1312-3 (same dies).
Notes: ex-Tom Vossen, electronic sale, 6/3/2015



The modern city of Umm Qais, in Northern Jordan, is situated near the ancient ruins of Gadara. Here's a map of the Decapolis. One of my collecting goals this year is to acquire as many coins from as many mints from this region as I can. This is my first of Gadara.



If you've got any coins of Gadara, let's see them!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

nice, see my new placed article, so we have simular interest, I also have the book of Spijkerman and in the past had many coins of the decapolis.

 

Thanks Cyrrhus. Do you mind checking if the attribution in Spijkerman is correct? I only have SNG ANS, but I trust Tom Vossen's attributions implicitly.

Where is your article?

 

about Atargatis, just placed a few min. before you )
Let me check my book and make pictures..

 

hello again, looks to be number 49, so correctly attr. I think

 

Thank you very much Cyrrhus!

 

Cool addition, my mang!!

I happen to have an example from Gadara as well... ummm, hopefully it'll be okay if I post 'er?

SYRIA, Decapolis. Gadara. Gordian III AE26
238-244 A.D.
Dated CY 303 (AD 239/40)
Diameter: 26 mm
Weight: 13.34 grams
Obverse: Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Reverse: Galley left with captain, seven oarsmen, and steersman on deck; ΓT (date) below
Reference: Spijkerman 93; Rosenberger 90; SNG ANS 1332-8

 

=> both of our examples have the same type of "fabric" about 'em, eh? (very cool addition, JA)

 

Yeah Steve, I forgot you had that coin. It's a beauty!

 

Cool goal John. Like I have said before, I wish I had more time to concentrate on that area of the world's coins. I find them very interesting, but one cannot try to cover the whole world, and my heart is still stuck in Central Asia.

 

nice lookin' provencial JA, nice "earthtone" patina!

i don't have any coins from this place (i steve's is a beauty), and didn't even know where it was...thanks for the map!

 

Today's post delivered a beautiful Nabataean sela of Aretas IV. They are typically referred to as drachms, but we actually know the name of these coins in Nabataean, from an inscription which recorded a fine paid by a certain number of sela'im.

This is a first-year-of-rule coin, 9 BC. (The date is behind the queen's bust.) The queen is Huldu, to which Aretas IV was already married when he became king. A large coin (4.8g) of good silver, before inflation and silver shortages debased and shrunk the sela'im to half their size and fineness.

 

This may be the first Nabataean I've seen that I truly would like in my collection. Very nice JA.

 

Almost got that from Tom too, I liked it.

 

Ok, but you did much better with the solidus. This coin actually cost substantially more. They are just too damn rare, maybe numbering in the teens or twenties.

Not Tom. My buddy Hassan in Dubai, although Tom always has coins that I want!

 

Are you saying this coin was more expensive than the gold solidus? Wow, maybe I don't want this coin. The fact remains that it is the best Nabataean I've seen.

 

By a few Franklins. Needless to say, I can't afford too many of these coins. So far I have two, which make an interesting comparison. Aretas IV/Huldu and Rabbel II/Shaqilat. Rabbel was Aretas' grandson, and the smaller, debased sela was issued toward the end of the Nabataean empire.

Notice how the style shifted from realistic to stylized.

 

.

 

Holy Sand Snakes! Look at that Nabatean!

 

That's about the nicest Nabataean I've ever seen. Congrats!