175, Lot: 129. Estimate $150. Sold for $94. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NABATAEA. Anonymous issues. Circa 72-9(?) BC. Æ 17mm (2.83 g, 10h). Petra mint. Helmeted head of Athena right / Nike advancing left, holding wreath and cornucopia; [A in left field]. Meshorer, Nabataea 1-4 (for type); Schmitt-Korte & Price III p. 95 (for date). VF, smooth green patina.

Schmitt-Korte & Price argue that the anonymous bronzes, imitations of the gold staters of Alexander, are the first issues of a mint at Petra. Aretas III (87-62 BC) lost his principal city of Damascus to Tigranes II in 72 BC, and the mint was transferred to the desert citadel of Petra. The great variation in style of this type suggests a long period of striking, possibly into the last decades of the first century BC, as a parallel coinage to the royal series.