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Obol
| Issuer | Uncertain Philistian city |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 333 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.69 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A fantastical winged quadruped seated to the right, raising its left forepaw, with a horned lion-like head and a wing whose terminal extremity is formed as a bull's head, evoking a composite mythological creature of Near Eastern inspiration. The figure is depicted with careful attention to its hybrid anatomy, combining leonine, bovine, and avian elements. The entire design is enclosed within a dotted square border set within a recessed incuse square, a framing device typical of Philistian civic coinage of the fifth and fourth centuries BC. The incuse square serves both as a compositional frame and as evidence of the hammered die technique employed. No inscription or legend appears in the field. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Philistian coinage of this period is among the most taxonomically contested in ancient numismatics. The cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and several lesser centers all produced small silver on Athenian and Persian weight standards simultaneously, and die-link studies have still not resolved attribution for many types. Gitler and Tal's 2006 corpus was a landmark effort, but the XXVII series specifically remains a problem group — "uncertain" here is not a diplomatic hedge but a genuine scholarly impasse.
These fractional silvers circulated in a corridor that saw Egyptian, Persian, and Aegean commercial traffic intersecting. Gaza's mint output dominated, but not exclusively.