Judaea, Gadara or Syria Pompeian era

Bust of young Herakles left, club over shoulder.

Rostrum (ship's ram) right; above L A (Year one), below PΩMHΣ in two lines; all within wreath.

Military mint in Syria or Gadara; 64, 63 BCE
7.23g

Spijkerman 1 (Gadara); HGC 10, 381.

Very Rare.

Ex-Nummitra Auction 3, lot 897 (misattributed as Antony)


From "Coinage in the Roman Provinces Conference"
https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/rbw1/

In 64/3 BC Roman troops under Pompey liberated the Greek cities in Judaea conquered by Alexander Jannaeus. Pompey personally supervised the reconstruction of Gadara. In commemoration of this event the people of Gadara established the year 64/3 BC as the beginning of a new era for their history, in substitution for the Seleukid era.


Seyrig and Spijkerman attributed this type to the city of Gadara in the Decapolis, however, Kushnir-Stein, followed by Kindler and Meshorer, rejected that based on style, flan manufacture, and find locations. Most of the coins of this type have been found in Lebanon leading Meshorer to place them in the Iturean section of Sofaer, however, they lack the typical monograms and legends found on other Iturean coins leaving their exact origin still unknown. Kindler did not include this variant in his typology of Iturean coinage.