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« Last post by Ginolerhino on May 06, 2024, 05:19:27 am »
This coin is a double die-match with CNG Auction 108, 380 (May 2018). The CNG coin has no provenance, of course.
These coins are Billon or AE tetradrachms of Lihyan. Most of them are found in Hegra, Saudi Arabia, which may probably have been their minting place. There are different styles of Lihyanite coins. Coins of the same style as yours have been found in Hegra by the French-Saudi mission, another one in Aynuna by the Polish-Saudi mission, on the coast, and another one from Petra by Alexander S. Kirkbride ("Some Rare Coins from Transjordan", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 106 (April 1947) p. 5). An other Lihyanite coin of a slightly different style was also found in a Petra excavation by David F. Graf, in a late 4th c. BC context ("late Persian - early Hellenistic"). Cf. Graf David F., "Petra and the Nabataeans in the Early Hellenistic period: the literary and archaeological evidence", in Schmid Stephan G. and Mouton Michel eds, Men on the Rocks. The Formation of Nabataean Petra, Logos Verlag, 2013, 35-56, p. 45 and fig. 13-14).
You bought your coin in Petra from a "bedouin"... We cannot be 100% certain the coin was actually found in Petra, for Petra draws much more foreign visitors than al-Ula in Saudi Arabia, and people may carry coins found in saudi Arabia to Petra where they would meet more potential buyers. But it is possible your Bedouin tells the truth, for at least two Lihyanite coins have been previously found in Petra, one in a scientific excavation.
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