Catalog
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| Issuer | Uncertain Philistian city (Cities of Philistia) |
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| Year | 450 BC - 333 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bearded male head facing left in high relief, rendered in the Egypto-Persian artistic tradition characteristic of Philistian coinage. The face displays strongly defined features including a prominent nose, fleshy lips, and a full, striated beard with incised linear detailing. A round earring is visible at the ear, and a grape cluster or similarly granular vegetal element appears behind the head in the right field, suggesting possible Dionysiac or Near Eastern iconographic influence. |
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| Mintage | ND (450 BC - 333 BC) |
| Additional information |
The Philistian city coinages of the fifth and fourth centuries BC remain among the least-understood series in ancient numismatics — minting authority, civic attribution, and even the identities of the issuing cities are actively contested. Gitler and Tal's landmark cataloguing work, published in 2006, brought systematic order to a series previously scattered across auction records and museum drawers with little coherent classification. Even so, XVII.2D sits in a group where city attribution remains genuinely open.
Production ceased abruptly with Alexander's campaigns through the Levant in 332 BC.