Extremely Rare Issue

248, Lot: 313. Estimate $200. Sold for $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUDAEA, Herodians. Herod IV Philip. 4 BCE-34 CE. Æ (11mm, 1.56 g, 12h). Caesarea Philippi (Panias) mint. Dated CY 34 (30/1 CE). Bare head of Herod Philip right / L ΛΔ within wreath. Meshorer 108; Hendin 1232; RPC I 4950 (all from same obv. die). VF, green-brown patina. Extremely rare.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

Herod Philip was the first Jewish ruler to place his portrait on coins. Hendin (p. 257) notes: “Philip was able to immortalize his face on his coins largely because so few Jews lived in the territories over which he ruled. Jews would have taken this act as an insult and violation of the Mosaic Law against ‘graven images’.”