348, Lot: 373. Estimate $150. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NABATAEA. Aretas IV, with Huldu. 9 BC-AD 40. AR Drachm (15mm, 4.26 g, 12h). Petra mint. Dated RY 1 (9/8 BC). Jugate busts right of Aretas, laureate, and Huldu, draped; “year one,” to left in Aramaic / Laureate head of Aretas right; “the lover of his people,” to right in Aramaic. Cf. Meshorer, Nabataea 47 and 47A; Huth –; DCA –. VF, toned. Apparently an unpublished variety.

Meshorer 47 and 47A feature the jugate busts of Aretas and Huldu reversed, with Huldu in the foreground, rather than Aretas in the foreground as on this example. Additionally, the obverses for the two latter specimens are anepigraphic, whereas this coin, at the very least, bears the date (year one) behind the jugate busts. Though Aretas’ portrait differs in that it is laureate, compared to diademed as with the cited specimens, the presence of the epithet “the lover of his people” on the reverse (known only for him) clearly identifies this as Aretas IV and, by virtue of the date, Huldu.