Nomos 19

PHILISTO-ARABIAN. Mid 4th century BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 20x35 mm, 17.60 g, 9 h), uncertain mint, copying an Athen tetradrachm of the last quarter of the 5th century. Tall, somewhat elongated head of Athena to right, wearing crested Athenian helmet, large disc earring and heavy necklace. Rev. ΑΘΕ Owl standing to right, head facing; behind, olive sprig. No real parallel found. A very curious coin, struck on a misshapen, almost square flan. Scratches and abbrasions in the fields, perhaps from the die?, otherwise, extremely fine.

This is a very strange coin! The obverse, with its tall, thin head of Athena – who has a somewhat up-turned mouth – is vaguely normal, but the reverse owl is quite odd. He has a rather round head, rather than the slightly flattened one we normally see, the wing is long and hangs like a cloak, and the body feathers continue from the head to the tail, without the usual quasi-break two-thirds down. We know that it was found with a large group of normal Athenian tetradrachms dating to no later than the early 420s BC, so it has to be contemporary with them, and not a much later imitation of the 380s or later. Terming it Philisto-Arabian is reasonable and it is certainly 100% ancient, but what it actually is...