Curtis JJ,
Thanks, I am really pleased that you found my website useful.
Q.1 The similarities between Daleth and Resh is a challenging question, the difficulty is in trying to decipher the individual
writing styles of the workshop engravers and comprehending the numerous misleading graphs/tables showing the
Phoenician alphabet. I am not suggesting that the forementioned tables are entirely incorrect, but some do give rise to confusion (
see image below). Both letters are difficult to validate if not accustomed to Aradian coins of this period, but I will do my best to explain.
I have always associated Daleth and Resh with the following characters/letters (
see images below); Daleth can be seen with either a shorter horizontal or sloping descender line and triangle upper letter
part, and Resh with a predominately rounder upper letter
part,
apex and horizontal descender line [
Apex being the digit seen above the upper letter part]. A clearer perspective of Resh can be ascertained in the abbreviated city names of Marathos (
Amrit) and
Karne (
Qurn). I personally opted for the letter Resh on série 7 coins of Arados (
era date 130) purely based on the upper letter formation with
apex; however, it must be stated that the preferred letter in
Duyrat 2005, nos.2357-2424 is Daleth; perhaps the engravers intention was to show an alphabetical progression in regards to the letters seen in exerque i.e. Gimel and then Daleth.
I am confident that all the era date 130 coins have the same letter, albeit with different interpretations of letter formation. I will leave this conundrum to your discretion, ultimately it´s your preference that matters. I can only explain the reasoning for why I prefer Resh as opposed to Daleth.
Q.2 I totally agree that the accepted
ships figurehead is that of
Athena (Ἀθηνᾶ Πρόμαχος), this premise is also strengthened by a further three coin
types depicting a solitary
Athena figurehead on the prow of a galley i.e. série 1, 9 & 10; Poseidon hurling lightning bolts at
Ajax the lesser seems a little far fetched,
still i find it intriguing that this argument was put forward by Sayles and it needs further investigation.
Edit: P.S I
hope that i have answered your questions in a satisfactory manner ?