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Persian Empire, Samaria, 5th - 4th Century B.C.
Samaria was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th - 8th centuries B.C. The Assyrians took the city and the northern kingdom in 722/721 B.C. The city did not recover until the Persian period, the mid 5th century. The tensions between the ruling Sanballat family and Jerusalem under the governorship of Nehemiah are documented in the Bible (Ezra 4:10, Neh 4:7–8). Samaria became Hellenistic in 332 B.C. Thousands of Macedonian soldiers were settled there following a revolt. The Judaean king John Hyrcanus destroyed Samaria in 108 B.C., but it was resettled under Alexander Jannaeus. In 63 B.C., Samaria was annexed to the Roman province of Syria. Herod the Great fortified the city and renamed it Sebaste. The ruins are located in the Samaria mountains almost 10 km to the northwest of Nablus. This reverse type is copied from the obols of Sidon.
GS110667. Silver half ma'ha (1/48 shekel), unpublished denomination, cf. Meshorer-Qedar 203 (obol, 0.56g); Sofaer 134 (obol, 0.72); Samuels -; SNG ANS -; Hendin -; HGC 10 -, VF, centered, toned, rough, Samaria (Sebastia, West Bank) mint, weight 0.223g, maximum diameter 6.8mm, die axis 0o, 5th - 4th Century B.C.; obverse head of satrap left, bearded, wearing tiara and Assyrian coiffure; reverse Great king kneeling right, wearing kidaris and kandys, fighting a lion standing on its hind legs, the king has seized the lion by the mane with his left hand and holds a dagger in his right hand, all within a square dot border in a shallow square incuse; ex Gorny & Mosch auction 289 (10 Oct 2022), lot 450; ex Gert Cleff Collection (Wuppertal); ex Numismatica Ars Classica auction 64 (17-18 May 2012), lot 1679; this coin is one of only two specimens of this type sold in the last two decades recorded on Coin Archives; extremely rare; SOLD
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