The Last Nabataean Bronzes.

Rabbel II Soter (ar-Rabel) was the last of the Nabataean kings, reigning from AD 70 to 106, after which the Nabataean Kingdom was annexed by Trajan as Arabia Petraea. The bronze issues of Rabbel follow a common archetype established by his grandfather, Aretas IV: jugate portraits of the king and queen on the obverse, double cornucopiae with inscriptions on the reverse.

Three different legends can be found on the bronzes of Rabbel II, corresponding to the various reigning queens. From AD 70 to 75/6, we find the name of Rabbel’s mother, Shuqailat, who reigned as his regent. After her death, Rabbel married a certain Gamilat, and we find her name on the coins from AD 76 to about 103. These are the most common types owing to their long period of mintage. The last issues of Rabbel, and the last coins of the Nabataean Kingdom altogether, present the name of his second wife and third queen, Hagru. These were issued only briefly, and evidently in small quantities, and are thus exceedingly rare.

A key to reading the reverse inscriptions on the bronzes of Rabbel II. I’ve transcribed the lettering on the coins to a proposed unicode version of the Nabataean alphabet by Michael Everson.



1. Rabbel/Shuqailat. This coin has two of the finest portraits I’ve found on any Nabataean bronzes. Rabbel is portrayed as a young man, and his mother has distinctive, feminine features.



2. Rabbel/Gamilat. This coin is just a place-holder in my collection. It came in a lot of other pieces I was more interested in. These are quite common in much better condition, so I’ll be upgrading it soon.



3. Rabbel/Hagru. A new acquisition from the FORVM store. Although Hagru’s portrait is off-flan, the lettering of her name is quite clear on the reverse. This is only the second coin of this type I’ve found for sale in over a year of hunting, so I was quite pleased to make it my own.

 

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Great information JA. I don't collect these, but I suppose all coins need love. I'm glad they're in your hands.

 

Nice inscription key, JA. It'll definitely come in handy for anyone trying to find out more about these coins. Legends on your Rabbel/Hagru are great... pity her portrait had to make way for Rabbel's rock star tresses. The Rabbel/Shuqailat is very very nice!

 

Long hair was all the rage with those Nabataean hippies. One way to quickly distinguish the coins of Rabbel from those of his father and grandfather is to look at the length of the face. Rabbel had the Jay Leno chin going on. Compare the above coins with a portrait of his grandfather, Aretas IV...

 

Thanks, John!

 

Awesome info John, coin's look great too!!!

 

Man, great post John. If it weren't for me putting everything up in preparation for the move, I would have a tremendous desire to dig out my Nabatean box and actually, (shock), start to attribute some of them!

 

Thanks Chris. Good luck with the move! Ugh. I don't envy you - I despise moving.

 

At this point, its somewhat debatable whether I will be able to. I am out of room to push any more snow in my long driveway, and I have a 7-8 foot snowbank I will have to dig through to be able to move furniture out of my house and into the driveway. I am so sick of flipping winter this year. Everyone reading this should buy a case of aerosol cans and spray them liberally, and send an email to Al Gore telling him to........

I hate MN winter.

 

Nice thread JA, it's keeper!

 

Thats why my aunt moved, she detested the weather there. She moved to california in her teens and after my uncle died, she now lives in nevada.

Im sitting here with the fan on and its gonna be 80 degrees. I want my cold weather, im sick of this heat myself.

As for the OP, wonderful write up, John. very educational. I still need to get a few examples of these just to have. Some seem cheap enough.

 

Both of you should move to Portland Oregon, we have dry summers, two days of snow a winter, 35 degrees is considered "cold", and 80 is considered hot.

Oh yes, there's also a coin club with 35+ active members and we're hosting the 2015 National Money Show (I think that's it, it's the summer one).

Boom...

 

cool coins JA, that first rabbel/shuqailat is particularly nice.

 

So, posting this thread and looking at coin 2 in comparison to 1 and 3 annoyed me enough to upgrade it today. I reserved this coin with one of my favorite dealers in Nabataeans...



This is the coin whose image I used in the Rabbel/Gamilat legend diagram. Usually the letters GMLT are spelled out in a row. This engraver obviously forgot the L and then inserted it above. The portraits also match the quality of my other pieces.

It would seem that Gamilat had somewhat less than feminine features.

 

Another good pickup my friend.

 

Wow => I like today's sweet pick-up (congrats!!) ... it looks kinda pricey!? (but very nice)

 

Great thread John! The inscription key is very well done. It will come in very handy printed off as a flashcard for quick reference (assuming your ok with that). Seeing the change in portrait style from coin 1 to coin 2 is very interesting. The first coin has a Malichus II look to it, (wonderful coin by the way) probably the same engraver I would think.

 

By all means, print it off and use it. Meshorer comments on the style change from Rabbel/Shuqailat to Rabbel/Gamilat as well, calling the earlier style more "classical" and the later style crude. Crude might be too strong a word, though. I don't consider the coin in Reply 14 crude at all, at least by Nabataean standards - just different.

 

Hey, I've got one of these Rabbel rousers... Rabbel II with Gamilat. I like your new one much better than mine, JA.

This was from a small lot of Nabataeans I bought just to have some They aren't the prettiest coins but they are still interesting!

 

That's a very nice coin, TIF, as Nabataeans go. The elements I look for in collecting these are the faces of the portraits and the lettering. Yours has both. The roughness is typical of the series, and nowhere near as bad as it gets.