A nice, earlier Arabian Liyhan Kingdom imitation owl, and later coinage

[robinjojo]

These earlier imitations are definitely harder to locate, and when they appear, especially in an auction, bidding can be quite spirited.

Arabia Northwest,  Lihyan Kingdom, tetradrachm (imitating Athens),  350-250 BC.

22mm; 15.98 grams.

As this crude type goes, this owl is quite refined in style. The color and metal quality indicate a fairly high silver content.

Subsequent issues became increasingly debased and cruder overall.

 

Arabia Northwest, Lihyan Kingdom, BI tetradrachm (imitating Athens), 2nd-1st centuries BC.  Purchased from CNG.

13.02 grams

This example is noticeably more porous, and the features are more crudely engraved.

 

Arabia Norwest, Lihyan Kingdom. Two AE tetradrachms, 2nd-1st centuries BC.  Purchased from Roma Numismatics.

Huth 40 - Huth, Athenian, fig. 5, e.

13.45g (left) 12.45g (right)

While some might classify these owls as BI, what little silver that might be present makes them essentially AE owls.  At this stage the owl is in different profiles and the surrounding devices can be in varying locations.

 

Arabia Northwest, Lihyan Kingdom, AE tetradrachm owl imitation 2nd-1st centuries BC. 

7.4 grams

This later issue is a good example of the devolution of style to the point of near abstraction and symbolism.  Still the basic elements are visible in what I think is a wonderfully localized style (as is the case with all of these imitations).  At this point the owl's metal content is totally bronze.

 

Arabia Northwest, Lihyan Kingdom, Æ 16, circa 2nd-1st centuries BC. Imitating Athens.  Purchased from Roma Numismatics.

Huth 40 var. (weight)

5.69 grams

This final and smaller owl, struck on a thick chunky flan retains the central features, including quite amazingly a nearly complete standing owl on the reverse - quite an interesting example.

So, with the purchase of the OP owl, I think I am done with this series, unless an affordable and interesting variation appears. 

Drachms were also minted, and I have a few very worn examples.  Choice examples of those coins can command strong prices, almost on a par with their tetradrachm cousins.

Edited October 31, 2024 by robinjojo

[kirispupis]

Those are some gorgeous examples!

I have nothing from the Lihyan Kingdom, though I do have two coins (that you've already seen) tentatively attributed to Northern Arabia.

North Arabia
5th-3rd centuries BCE
15mm 4.0g
Helmeted head of Athena left / Owl standing left, head facing; olive spray to right.
Huth Qedar 1999 27-6

 

Northern Arabia(?)
Circa 4th-3rd centuries BCE
AR Tetartamorion .14g, 6.5mm
Helmeted head of Athena right.
Owl standing left, Paleo-Hebrew text to left. GSRK?
Huth & Qedar 1999 27-8

[robinjojo]

1 hour ago, kirispupis said:

Those are some gorgeous examples!

I have nothing from the Lihyan Kingdom, though I do have two coins (that you've already seen) tentatively attributed to Northern Arabia.

North Arabia
5th-3rd centuries BCE
15mm 4.0g
Helmeted head of Athena left / Owl standing left, head facing; olive spray to right.
Huth Qedar 1999 27-6

 

Northern Arabia(?)
Circa 4th-3rd centuries BCE
AR Tetartamorion .14g, 6.5mm
Helmeted head of Athena right.
Owl standing left, Paleo-Hebrew text to left. GSRK?
Huth & Qedar 1999 27-8

That's a really nice drachm that could very well be Lihyan. 

You try contacting Martin Huth through Academia.edu about this coin and the tetartamorion.

Here's a link to his page:

https://independent.academia.edu/MartinHuth

 

[JAZ Numismatics]

Excellent collection! The Lihyanites and Qedarites were the first cultures to establish trade routes throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Eventually the Nabataeans took over (until they in turn were annexed by Rome). But there's such an aura of mystique about the Nabataeans, and a pervasive myth that these wandering nomads came out of the abyssal desert and magically created a large and complex civilization almost overnight. In fact, the Nabataeans were only one of many Arabian tribes vying for dominance, and once they succeeded, they inherited a vast caravan trading network. That's not to diminish their accomplishments - the Nabataeans certainly developed Arabian civilization to one of its peaks. But they were building on the work of the Lihyanites and other tribes.

Among all the imitations of Greek coinage, the Celtic and Arabian are my favorites. Here's a tetradrachm from the eastern side of the peninsula, imitating the tets of Alex III...

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).

[robinjojo]

2 hours ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

Excellent collection! The Lihyanites and Qedarites were the first cultures to establish trade routes throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Eventually the Nabataeans took over (until they in turn were annexed by Rome). But there's such an aura of mystique about the Nabataeans, and a pervasive myth that these wandering nomads came out of the abyssal desert and magically created a large and complex civilization almost overnight. In fact, the Nabataeans were only one of many Arabian tribes vying for dominance, and once they succeeded, they inherited a vast caravan trading network. That's not to diminish their accomplishments - the Nabataeans certainly developed Arabian civilization to one of its peaks. But they were building on the work of the Lihyanites and other tribes.

Among all the imitations of Greek coinage, the Celtic and Arabian are my favorites. Here's a tetradrachm from the eastern side of the peninsula, imitating the tets of Alex III...

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).

That's a wonderful coin, and the only one that I've seen with the figure of Zeus seated facing right on the reverse.  It must be a very rare variant of an already rare coin.  The obverse is also very nicely centered.

[JAZ Numismatics]

27 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

That's a wonderful coin, and the only one that I've seen with the figure of Zeus seated facing right on the reverse.  It must be a very rare variant of an already rare coin.  The obverse is also very nicely centered.

In fact, I know of only one other example of the variety, sold by CNG a few years back. I stumbled across this coin on eBay, which must have been divine intervention. If you go looking for a decent rarity at a decent price in that mountain of garbage, you'll waste away your life.

[robinjojo]

Here's one more unusual Arabian owl imitation.  I was lucky to acquire this coin from a Roma Numismatics auction in 2020.

Arabia, South Arabia, Ma'in, AR owl, c. 200-100 BC.  From Roma E-Sale 73, lot 527.

15.20 grams

These Ma'in owls are very rare, from one hoard for the coins appearing on the market.  These tetradrachms were created with coins that were hammered and folded before striking, as can easily be seen with this example.  They are all quite crude, as expected, but some have better detail and very high prices.  

Here is their description for this lot:

South Arabia, Kingdom of Ma'in (Minaia)(?) AR Tetradrachm. Circa 200-100 BC(?). Imitating Athens. Helmeted head of Athena right / Owl standing facing, [olive sprig and crescent] behind; South Arabian letters z and ['ayin] to right. Huth, 'Monetary Circulation in South West Arabia' in CKK, Al-Jawf Hoard 21 (same dies). 15.20g, 24mm, 12h. Very Fine. Very Rare; one other example on CoinArchives. Martin Huth has argued that this series was struck on 'folded flans' which were prepared by hammering an existing coin to obliterate its design and then folding it once, then hammering together two such pieces before striking, resulting in a triangular shape (Huth, 'Monetary Circulation' in CKK, pp. 86-7). The Al-Jawf Hoard contained 21 tetradrachms struck on flans produced in this way and were found alongside numerous heavily bent Alexander III type tetradrachms (some Arabian imitations, see nos. 210-229 and 232-246). Huth suggests that the deformation of the Alexander III types may have been a way of invalidating coinage entering South Arabia, preventing its entry into local circulation and may have provided the raw material for new flans (ibid, p. 88). Despite this, Huth notes that the large size of the Alexander tetradrachms were not conducive to the method of production used to create the flans for the striking of the imitative Athens tetradrachms. The source material for flans used to strike this series of imitative Athens tetradrachms probably came from elsewhere and the exact reasons for this seemingly unnecessarily complicated method of production remain unclear. The likely burial date of the hoard is thought to be around the turn of the second century BC and the folded Alexander type tetradrachms date to the first half of the second century BC. This series of imitative Athens tetradrachms were probably produced around the same time the Alexander tetradrachms were circulating and the find spot suggests they were struck by one of the small states situated in the Wadi al-Jawf. Huth suggests the importance of the trading activities of Mai'in during this period, when other South Arabian states were minting their own coins, and its nature as a loose confederation of states make it a possible candidate for the attribution of this coinage (Ibid, p. 89).