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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1671048, member: 42773&quot;]I acquired this piece today, and you might be tempted to ask why. These early Greek-imitative issues are neither well-struck nor well-preserved to begin with, and this one is a particularly poor example of the type.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH]248344.vB[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>However, it does have one redeeming quality that is scarce. Meshorer catalogs these pieces as 1 and 1A. 1 includes a crescent over Λ in the left field of the reverse, 1A does not have these marks. </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH]248358.vB[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Most of these coins exist in such a state that one can&#039;t discern which category they belong to. They are either too worn, or struck off-center left, so that the left field is off the flan. In most cases one can only attribute them as 1 OR 1A. See this link at Coin Project...</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.coinproject.com/search_emperor.php?emp=Aretas-II-&amp;region=NABATAEAN-KINGDOM&amp;type=12" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinproject.com/search_emperor.php?emp=Aretas-II-&amp;region=NABATAEAN-KINGDOM&amp;type=12" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinproject.com/search_emperor.php?emp=Aretas-II-&amp;region=NABATAEAN-KINGDOM&amp;type=12</a></p><p><br /></p><p>This piece, however, was struck off-center right enough so that the marks are clearly and boldly visible, which is really its only redeeming numismatic virtue.</p><p><br /></p><p>One is tempted to guess at the meaning of the marks. Perhaps Λ is Alpha and refers to Aretas himself, and the crescent has something to do with things of a celestial nature, or perhaps it&#039;s a stylized crown, etc. But it&#039;s all baseless conjecture.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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