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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 3226212, member: 42773&quot;]Being the self-proclaimed Grand Poobah of Nabataean coinage, I&#039;ll add a few posts to this thread, trying to be as succinct as I can. I realize it&#039;s not the most electrifying of numismatic rabbit holes, but the coinage does speak volumes about Levantine history from the 3rd century BC to the annexation of the empire by Trajan in AD 107 as <i>Provincia Arabia</i>.</p><p><br /></p><p>During the last ebb of the Seleucid Empire, the Nabataeans began minting their own coinage, perhaps covertly. I say &quot;perhaps covertly&quot; because these issues present nothing intrinsically Nabataean. They are small module bronzes modeled after the staters of Alexander III with Athena and Nike, see Coin 1. The earliest examples were struck over Ptolemaic bronzes. Coin 2 is the most dramatic example of these proto-Nabataean overstrikes I&#039;ve ever found. Both Zeus and Athena share the obverse, and on the reverse, the ghost of the Ptolemaic eagle is clearly seen under a weakly struck Nike - struck with a die obviously much smaller than the host coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin 3 is the only example (known to me) of a proto-Nabataean coin struck over a Seleucid host. Here we have Athena and a smaller bust of some Antiochus - I&#039;m not sure which. How do I know it was an Antiochus? Because the letters TI·X·Y were left intact on the reverse. (If I tried really hard, I could probably pin down the exact type of the host coin.)</p><p><br /></p><p>The Nabataean ruler Aretas II (103-96 BC) officially minted these imitative types during his tenure at Damascus. They were no longer overstruck, but produced on fresh flans in good Hellenistic style. But notice that Athena&#039;s hair and Nike&#039;s wings were rendered as dots. Coin 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin 5 represents an official modification of the obverse bust style, modeled after the bronzes of Alexander Balas. Athena takes on more masculine features and the helmet is more Boeotian than Corinthian.</p><p><br /></p><p>If any of the previous bronzes can be called official, Coin 6 represents an unofficial, or barbarous emission. These are quite scarce in my experience - I&#039;ve only collected two.</p><p><br /></p><p>These early Athena/Nike types were probably struck during the reigns of Aretas II, Obodas I, Rabbel I, and Aretas III, spanning a period from about 103 to about 62 BC. Some were definitely struck at Damascus, perhaps coins like #4, others may have been struck at Petra or elsewhere. Beyond saying that the proto-Nabataean overstrikes preceded the freshly-struck coins, we don&#039;t have enough information to construct a more detailed chronology.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you read all of that, go have a cookie. You deserve it. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie6" alt=":cool:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]841088[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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