COINAGE OF ANCIENT ARABIA: Cities of Gerrha and Mleiha.

[JAZ Numismatics]

The history of Gerrha and northeastern Arabia is poorly known. Even the location of the city is a mystery, but it is thought to have been located near the modern village of Thaj in Saudi Arabia.

Like their neighbors, the Nabataeans, the Gerrhaeans had grown wealthy as middlemen in the Arabian incense trade, supplying Babylonian and Mesopotamian markets with frankincense and myrrh obtained in Saba. The earliest issues of Gerrha consisted of tetradrachms, drachms, and obols imitating the types of Alexander III, although Zeus has been transmogrified into the sun-god Shams, with the letter Shem in the left field. (Image courtesy of CNG, not my coin)...

A billon coinage was also issued in the city of Mleiha (close to modern-day Dubai) in three denominations. The designs are far more stylized than the Gerrhaean coins, almost reminiscent of Celtic coinage. This is the only coin in my collection from the Eastern Arabian cultures - they are generally quite rare, although the Mleihan coins are perhaps only scarce. However, the seated right varieties are rare...

 

ARABIA, Eastern. Mleiha. Uncertain. 1st century BC – 2nd century AD. BI Tetradrachm (25mm, 13.7 g). Imitating Alexander III of Macedon. In the name of ’Abi’el. Stylized head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Figure enthroned right, holding scepter in left hand, right hand extended, upon which a small “horse” stands left; palm tree to right, trident-like symbol to inner right, ’b’l (in crude form of Aramaic) to left. MacDonald, Abiel, Group D.2.2; Huth –; Potts Class XLV; HGC 10, 689 var. (rev. type left).

My conjecture is that the Mleihan issues were intended for local use only, being debased. The silver of Gerrha was coined on the Attic standard. I have no proof of this, however. I would like to see the disposition of the Bahrain Hoard of 1969/70, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. It would perhaps offer some clues. Thank you for reading, and feel free to post any coins of ancient Arabia.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:45 PM by JAZ Numismatics

[robinjojo]

Nice posting and a very nice example of a BI tetradrachm from Mleiha!

I was fortunate to be able to acquire two coins of this unusual very localized imitative type. 

Eastern Arabia, Oman Peninsula, Mleiha, Abi'el, BI tetsdrachms, 1st century BC - 1st century AD.

14.98 g (l) 15.01 g (r)

[JAZ Numismatics]

On 4/22/2024 at 2:00 AM, robinjojo said:

Nice posting and a very nice example of a BI tetradrachm from Mleiha!

I was fortunate to be able to acquire two coins of this unusual very localized imitative type. 

Eastern Arabia, Oman Peninsula, Mleiha, Abi'el, BI tetsdrachms, 1st century BC - 1st century AD.

14.98 g (l) 15.01 g (r)

These coins are scarce enough that I expected another forum member to have maybe one, but not two! How did you come by the pair?

I did manage to hunt down the disposition of the Bahrain Hoard, and it consisted of 215 tetradrachms of Gerrha, 77 of Hagar. (Published in Coin Hoards, RNS, London, 1975.) No coins from from Mleiha, so that's a small bit of evidence that the billon issues did not circulate widely. I also discovered that Polybius wrote about the Gerrhaeans, of which we have the following fragments...

13.9.1 Chattenia in the Persian Gulf is the third district belonging to the Gerraeans. It is a poor district in other respects, but villages and towers have been established in it for the convenience of the Gerraeans who cultivate it...

4. The Gerraeans begged the king not to abolish the gifts the gods had bestowed on them, perpetual peace and freedom. The king, when the letter had been interpreted to him, said that he granted their request...

5. When their freedom had been established, the Gerraeans passed a decree honoring Antiochus with a gift of five hundred talents of silver, a thousand talents of frankincense, and two hundred talents of so-called "stacte" [oil of myrrh or cinnamon]. He then sailed to the island of Tylus [modern Bahrain], and left for Seleucia. The spices were from the Persian Gulf.

The Seleucid king in question here is Antiochus III, who threatened to conquer the region in 205/4 BC, but once he had extorted his booty, he withdrew. It's likely that part of the payment consisted of the good silver imitation tetradrachms. Huth and Potts (ANJ 14) explained the surprising findspots of some of the tetradrachms along the route taken by the Seleucid army upon its return.

[robinjojo]

8 hours ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

These coins are scarce enough that I expected another forum member to have maybe one, but not two! How did you come by the pair?

I did manage to hunt down the disposition of the Bahrain Hoard, and it consisted of 215 tetradrachms of Gerrha, 77 of Hagar. (Published in Coin Hoards, RNS, London, 1975.) No coins from from Mleiha, so that's a small bit of evidence that the billon issues did not circulate widely. I also discovered that Polybius wrote about the Gerrhaeans, of which we have the following fragments...

13.9.1 Chattenia in the Persian Gulf is the third district belonging to the Gerraeans. It is a poor district in other respects, but villages and towers have been established in it for the convenience of the Gerraeans who cultivate it...

4. The Gerraeans begged the king not to abolish the gifts the gods had bestowed on them, perpetual peace and freedom. The king, when the letter had been interpreted to him, said that he granted their request...

5. When their freedom had been established, the Gerraeans passed a decree honoring Antiochus with a gift of five hundred talents of silver, a thousand talents of frankincense, and two hundred talents of so-called "stacte" [oil of myrrh or cinnamon]. He then sailed to the island of Tylus [modern Bahrain], and left for Seleucia. The spices were from the Persian Gulf.

The Seleucid king in question here is Antiochus III, who threatened to conquer the region in 205/4 BC, but once he had extorted his booty, he withdrew. It's likely that part of the payment consisted of the good silver imitation tetradrachms. Huth and Potts (ANJ 14) explained the surprising findspots of some of the tetradrachms along the route taken by the Seleucid army upon its return.

A seller in the UAE had a small group of them.  I purchased a couple at a modest discount.  They don't show up too often, although of the imitations from this region, this type is the more commonly encountered, based on my experience.

 

[NewStyleKing]

The southern Arabians Sa'aba ( Yeman) had the real good taste to drop their copies of the old style Athens and follow with the NewStyle, even into the Roman Imperial times

[Edessa]

Arabia Felix. Sabaean Kingdom. Late 4th–mid 2nd centuries BC. AR Unit (16mm, 5.29g, 6h). Imitating Athens. Obv: Helmeted head of Athena right; Sabaean 'n' on cheek. Rev: Owl standing right, head facing; [monogram] to upper left, monogram and AΘE to lower right. Ref: Munro-Hay 1.4ci; SNG ANS 1459; Huth -. Toned Very Fine, some flat spots. Monogram combination 143 in Munro-Hay, but monogram to upper left is struck flat. Ex Munzen & Medaillen with old flip. 

[mcwyler]

Interesting coins, to add to the long "must get one of those" list. Your map represents the south as Arabie Heureuse, so I suppose those northeastern issues are from Arabie Triste. 

[JAZ Numismatics]

23 minutes ago, mcwyler said:

Interesting coins, to add to the long "must get one of those" list. Your map represents the south as Arabie Heureuse, so I suppose those northeastern issues are from Arabie Triste. 

The Romans called the region of Saba Arabia Felix because of its abundant resources. Heureuse is a poor translation. In Latin, felix has many connotations, including blessed, fertile, prosperous, fortunate, etc. It doesn't mean simply "happy."

Edited April 25 by JAZ Numismatics

[John Conduitt]

26 minutes ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

The Romans called the region of Saba Arabia Felix because of its abundant resources. Heureuse is a poor translation. In Latin, felix has many connotations, including blessed, fertile, prosperous, fortunate, etc. It doesn't mean simply "happy."

Yes this is a problem with a lot of Roman coins. Was the emperor happy, blessed, successful, prosperous, fortunate? They're not synonyms. Which did they mean? The same with Felicitas (Felicium Temporum Reparatio).

[NewStyleKing]

But maybe they were sort of synonyms? Meanings meld, change, accumulate .etc, Decimate originally meant, I believe, remove 1 in 10, but the modern English would mean more likely something of far greater action indeed in many eyes, something like 9/10 and approach the word devastate, as in lay waste, which the Romans practised!  And I'm sure strict "dictionary" meanings altered in Roman times too! ( but I wasn't there at the time so it's speculation") . I'm blessed by the interest of many others in the appreciation of the NewStyle and fortunate in the times of my collecting when hoards appeared commonly, as opposed to now, and successfully amassed a world beating collection! Oh, happy prosperous times, may they NOT reoccur, why should I share my fortune! 

[mcwyler]

1 hour ago, John Conduitt said:

Yes this is a problem with a lot of Roman coins. Was the emperor happy, blessed, successful, prosperous, fortunate? They're not synonyms. Which did they mean? The same with Felicitas (Felicium Temporum Reparatio).

I reckon if you're the emperor you're all of those. Until the likely assassination and  subsequent damnatio memoriae.