Samaria Silver M'h, Samarian Coinage 62

Monetary and Historical Context

During the fifth and fourth centuries BC, the province of Samaria (ancient Samerina) functioned as an important administrative division within the fifth Achaemenid satrapy, known as Eber-Nari ('Beyond the River'). Governed by local dynasties such as the House of Sanballat under the oversight of Persian imperial authorities, the region maintained administrative and commercial networks connecting inland trade routes with Mediterranean coastal ports. In the middle of the fourth century BC, a vibrant regional coinage emerged across the southern Levant, spanning Philistia, Judah (Yehud), and Samaria. Rather than relying solely on imported Athenian tetradrachms or official Persian imperial sigloi, local authorities initiated extensive issues of fractional silver coins. The silver m'h (plural ma'ot), traditionally equated to the Levantine sixth-shekel and the Greek obol, was the workhorse denomination of everyday market exchange in Samaria. In Hebrew and Aramaic linguistic contexts, the term m'h denoted a standard fractional weight unit. Samarian fractional currency facilitated domestic commerce, the payment of local taxes, and retail market liquidity. Samarian Coinage 62 belongs to this late Persian-period horizon, circulating alongside various minute fractions, including hemiobols and quarter-obols. The introduction of these tiny denominations reflects the deepening monetization of provincial society in the Levant before the Macedonian conquest dismantled Persian administration in 332 BC.

Production Technology and Minting Authorities

The production of Samarian Coinage 62 involved manual striking from carefully engraved bronze or iron dies onto cast silver flans. The coin weighs generally between 0.50 and 0.80 grams, reflecting the Attic-Persic fractional weight standards utilized in the regional mints of fourth-century BC Palestine. Due to the diminutive scale of the m'h, which typically measures under 10 millimeters in diameter, die-engravers operated with remarkable technical precision to render intricate figurative details within restricted fields. Numismatists attribute this type to an administrative mint located at the provincial capital of Samaria, modern Sebaste. While Persian imperial satraps and provincial governors exercised ultimate political authority, the diverse iconographic programs of the Samarian series suggest that local fiscal administrators, civic magistrates, or regional governors directed production. The striking technique is marked by the deliberate preservation of an incuse square on both faces, a stylistic and technical archaism retained in Levantine minting long after Greek mints had largely abandoned recessed fields. Dies appear to have been aligned manually, resulting in irregular die axes across surviving specimens.

Obverse Iconography

The obverse of Samarian Coinage 62 presents the head of a horned eagle-griffin facing right. The creature combines avian and leonine elements, distinguished by an alert predatory beak, prominent plumage or crest detailing, and an upright horn curving along the crown of the head. This hybrid creature is enclosed within a delicate dotted square border, which in turn is set inside an incuse square depression produced by the upper surface of the lower anvil die or the shape of the die face. In Persian and Near Eastern artistic traditions, the horned griffin occupied a significant place as a symbol of supernatural guardianship, martial ferocity, and imperial majesty. Griffins and horned mythical beasts feature prominently on Achaemenid architectural reliefs at Persepolis and Susa, as well as on court seals and metalwork. By adopting the horned eagle-griffin for a municipal or provincial coin, the engravers of Samaria borrowed authoritative imagery from the Persian court while rendering it within the formal framework of western Greek-style incuse coinage.

Reverse Design

The reverse of the coin displays a frontally facing, winged head of the Egyptian dwarf deity Bes, surmounted by a winged solar disc. Bes is depicted with his characteristic leonine and grotesque facial features, broad cheeks, beard, and a high feather headdress or crown. Wings sprout laterally from the base of the head, accentuating the divine and magical nature of the image. Above this composite head hovers a miniature winged sun disc, a classic Mesopotamian, Levantine, and Persian symbol of royal power and celestial protection. The entire composition is framed by a linear or dotted square border set within an incuse square. The cult of Bes enjoyed immense popularity across the Persian Empire and particularly along the Mediterranean coast and southern Levant. Reinterpreted beyond his Egyptian origins, Bes became a universal apotropaic deity associated with protection against evil, fertility, and physical well-being. Achaemenid courtiers and provincial subjects alike favored Bes amulets, statuettes, and seal rings. On Samarian coins, the combination of Bes with the winged disc creates a powerful synthesis of religious and royal symbolism, providing divine protection to the currency and its users.

Epigraphy and Legends

Samarian Coinage 62 is entirely anepigraphic, lacking the Aramaic or Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions that characterize many other issues of the fourth-century BC Samarian series. In the broader Samarian corpus, numerous coins bear clear legends naming the province (Shomron), governors such as Sanballat, Bagavahya, or Hananiah, or high officials and monetary magistrates. By contrast, type 62 relies exclusively on its distinct pictorial devices to identify the authority and convey its visual message. The absence of an inscription is not unusual in the fourth-century Levantine series, where many types in Philistia, Samaria, and Phoenicia omit epigraphy or carry only isolated letters. In such instances, numismatic classification depends upon hoard associations, metallurgical analysis, die linkages, and thematic continuity with inscribed types from the same regional workshops. The lack of legends on Samarian Coinage 62 means that assigning a precise regnal year or naming an individual moneyer remains impossible, leaving the type anchored within the collective civic output of the provincial mint.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference classification established by Ya'akov Meshorer and Shraga Qedar in their corpora of Samarian coinage, type 62 represents a discrete issue among more than two hundred documented varieties from the province. The broader series began in the late fifth century BC and continued until the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after which Macedonian royal types rapidly superseded native provincial minting. Detailed hoard evidence, notably from the Samaria Hoard and related regional deposits, indicates that the hybrid pictorial issues of this style reached their peak between approximately 375 BC and 335 BC. Typologically, Samarian Coinage 62 is closely affiliated with other small fractions that juxtapose Near Eastern fabulous beasts with Egyptianizing deities. It forms part of an iconographic group where Achaemenid griffins, lions, and Persian kings alternate with the head of Bes, Athena, or coastal marine creatures. Because this specific type does not feature an inscribed governor's name, scholars place it chronologically through stylistic comparisons of the incuse squares, flan fabrics, and die-cutting techniques, dating its striking securely to the middle or third quarter of the fourth century BC.

Circulation and Archaeological Context

The circulation of Samarian Coinage 62 was predominantly regional, concentrated in the hill country of central Palestine and adjoining coastal and Jordan Valley trade corridors. Because fractional silver like the m'h carried low intrinsic value relative to large Greek silver coins or Persian darics, it rarely traveled across Mediterranean maritime routes in commercial quantities. Instead, it moved within local market economies, providing change for transactions involving agricultural produce, textiles, and domestic commodities. Crucial archaeological evidence for the circulation of Samarian fractions derives from hoards buried in the late fourth century BC, particularly around the time of the Macedonian conquests and the anti-Macedonian uprising of Samaria in 331 BC. The famous discoveries in the Wadi ed-Daliyeh caves, which yielded hoards along with papyri and skeletal remains of Samarian refugees fleeing Macedonian retribution, provide an absolute chronological terminus ante quem for Persian-period Samarian coinage. Excavated specimens demonstrate that these tiny coins remained in active use alongside Philistian and Athenian fractions until imperial Hellenistic coinages displaced them.

References

1. Levantine Coins Online: Samarian Coinage 62. lco.csc.62
2. The Coinage of Samaria in the Persian Period. Jerusalem: Israel Numismatic Society, 1999
3. Vestigia Leonis: Studien zur antiken Numismatik Israels, Palästinas und der östlichen Mittelmeerwelt. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1998