Half Unit

The Sabaean kingdom, centered on the ancient city of Marib in modern Yemen, drew its wealth from controlling the overland incense trade routes connecting the Arabian interior to Mediterranean markets. These small gold fractions circulated in an economy where frankincense and myrrh moved in quantities that made precise fractional coinage commercially necessary.

Huth's classification of this type places it among the later autonomous issues, after Sabaean coinage had absorbed Hellenistic influences filtering south through Nabataean and Parthian trade contacts.