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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1943491, member: 42773&quot;]I don&#039;t have any coins that were intentionally halved to create smaller denominations, but I will take this opportunity to post some of my precious and decrepit Nabataeans.</p><p><br /></p><p>These are all bronzes issued by Aretas IV (9 BC - 40 AD). The obverse of the top coin features jugate portraits of Aretas and his queen Shuqailat. Over the queen&#039;s head is the inscription <b>שלם</b>, signifying &quot;whole&quot; - this Nabataean word is identical to the Aramaic root s.l.m., from which the modern Arabic <i>Shalom</i> and Hebrew <i>Shalem</i> derive.</p><p><br /></p><p>When these larger bronzes were first issued, it was apparently necessary to differentiate them from from smaller coins already in circulation. This may seem superfluous to the casual observer, but prior to their issue, there had been a shortage of silver, and bronze coins had been minted as substitutes for drachms, which caused considerable confusion with respect to denominations.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the case of the top coin, the inscription <b>שלם</b> was likely intended to signify that the coin was a bronze whole, rather than a silver substitute, and at the same time define the six coins below it as halves.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]337940[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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