This little coin was in a group of Greek coins from middle east. I have never seen this exact type, but obverse seems to have Tyche, like many phoenician coins. The reverse depicts lion with snake above, the only other coin having this combination that comes to my mind is small ae of Hadrian from Caesarea Maritima. Could it be a minima from Caesarea? The diameter is 12mm, right for the type, but weight of 1.41g is a bit heavy, typically they are 0.7 to 1.2g. Any ideas?
I see your research but also know the lion under a club was used by many places for well over a century (Hadrian-Gordian) leaving me quite mystified.
I think that's a snake. Here's a similar coin, a cool "snack" from AMCC2 . I haven't had time to do any reading about it and the attribution plus historical background is copied from Sev's auction blurb. JUDAEA, Caesarea Maritima. Hadrian 117-138 CE; 2.72 gm, 12 mm Obv: [IMP TR HADRIANO CA]; laureate (?) head right Rev: [CIFAC]; lion walking right, snake above Ref: SNG ANS 774; BMC 76. The reverse legend stands for C[OLONIA] P[RIMA] F[LAVIA] A[VGVSTA] F[ELIX] C[AESARENSIS]. Founded by Herod the Great, the Romans made Caesarea Maritima the capital of the province of Judaea; it was elevated to the status of Colonia by Vespasian. This coin was issued around the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt under Hadrian. After the revolt's suppression, Hadrian instituted a number of repressive measures, including renaming the province to Syria Palaestina, prohibiting Torah law and the Jewish calendar, and burning sacred books.
Exactly, so it looks to me that TIF's coin is the prototype for the reverse of that minima, and the obverse is from some phoenician issue, probably Tyre. Minimas often combine designs is very different coins, like emperor bust from Alexandria as obverse and grape leaf of Jewish war prutah as reverse.
I look forward to researching my coin and yours! At first I thought your coin's bust was the same as mine but with some wear or die breaks but you're right-- that's looks like a veiled female wearing some sort of headdress. I agree that it resembles Phoenician Astarte/Tyche.
Kadman suggested military context since the lion/snake type was only used under Trajan and Hadrian, presumably at the time of Parthian war and Bar Kochba revolt. I am not really convinced by this argument, he based this connection on similarity with wild boar type of Aelia Capitolina, but boar is known symbol of X legion.
