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That'll be Shalom and a quarter please...
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<p>[QUOTE="John Anthony, post: 1896429, member: 42773"]Here is a handful of the minute bronzes of Aretas IV, which I haven't posted before. These are of the bust/cornucopiae type. Various permutations of this type were minted throughout the entire reign of Aretas IV, and there are quite a few varieties to collect.</p><p><br /></p><p>They all come in around 12-14mm, and never weigh more than 1.5g. I imagine these coins were the real workhorses of the Nabataean economy, changing hands by the thousands during Aretas' long reign. One dealer in the Middle East told me you can't dig a hole on the Arabian Peninsula without finding a little coin of Aretas IV.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse of coin 1 exhibits the ligature heth-resh on the reverse with a dot over the top. The ligature is Aretas' monogram, but the meaning of the dot is unknown.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin 2 has the ligature without a dot.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin 3 exhibits a circle between the cornucopiae - its meaning is also unknown. Meshorer proffered the theory that it was a mint mark denoting Petra, but as far as we know, Petra was the only location at which the Nabataeans minted coins, so a mint mark would have been superfluous. The circle is not a Nabataean letter, and bears no obvious relationship to the Nabataean name for Petra, which was Reqem. This coin has an unusually nice portrait of the king.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin 4 is of the parallel cornucopiae type. There is also a variety with parallel cornucopiae to the left, palm branch to right.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]323683[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="John Anthony, post: 1896429, member: 42773"]Here is a handful of the minute bronzes of Aretas IV, which I haven't posted before. These are of the bust/cornucopiae type. Various permutations of this type were minted throughout the entire reign of Aretas IV, and there are quite a few varieties to collect. They all come in around 12-14mm, and never weigh more than 1.5g. I imagine these coins were the real workhorses of the Nabataean economy, changing hands by the thousands during Aretas' long reign. One dealer in the Middle East told me you can't dig a hole on the Arabian Peninsula without finding a little coin of Aretas IV. The reverse of coin 1 exhibits the ligature heth-resh on the reverse with a dot over the top. The ligature is Aretas' monogram, but the meaning of the dot is unknown. Coin 2 has the ligature without a dot. Coin 3 exhibits a circle between the cornucopiae - its meaning is also unknown. Meshorer proffered the theory that it was a mint mark denoting Petra, but as far as we know, Petra was the only location at which the Nabataeans minted coins, so a mint mark would have been superfluous. The circle is not a Nabataean letter, and bears no obvious relationship to the Nabataean name for Petra, which was Reqem. This coin has an unusually nice portrait of the king. Coin 4 is of the parallel cornucopiae type. There is also a variety with parallel cornucopiae to the left, palm branch to right. [ATTACH=full]323683[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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That'll be Shalom and a quarter please...
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