ARABIA, Southern. Ma'in (Minaia)(?). Circa 250-150 BC. AR BLṬT – “Tetradrachm” (23mm, 15.13 g, 12h). Imitating Athens. VF.

Electronic Auction 597
Lot: 243. Estimated: $ 750

Greek, 12h, Silver

Sold For $ 1 500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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ARABIA, Southern. Ma'in (Minaia)(?). Circa 250-150 BC. AR BLṬT – “Tetradrachm” (23mm, 15.13 g, 12h). Imitating Athens. Stylized helmeted head of Athena right / Owl standing right, wings folded; traces of olive spray and crescent to left, South Arabian Z and ‘ayin downward to right. Cf. M. Huth, “The ‘folded flan’ coinage of eastern Arabia: some preliminary comments” in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 9 (1998), 1; M. Huth, “Monetary Circulation in South West Arabia” in CCK, p. 85, 11 (same rev. die); Huth 155–6. Lightly toned, some remnants of find patina. VF. Very rare.

This fascinating coin of derivative Athenian type was struck on a folded flan of another coin, and was originally attributed by Huth (1998) to a mint in eastern Arabia, where all of the six then-extant examples had been found. The discovery of the al-Jawf hoard in 2002, however, definitively changed his view of this intriguing coinage. In his analysis of the hoard (in CCK), Huth determined that all of the previous six coins, and those found in the hoard, were struck at the same mint, in three phases that employed increasingly simplified methods. In the first phase, the coins were struck on previous tetradrachms that were folded over twice, forming a triangular shaped flan upon which derivative Athenian types were struck (the present coin is from this phase). The second phase consisted of coins struck on previous coins that had only been folded over once, forming a semicircular shaped flan. Finally, in the third phase, the host tetradrachms were cut into two halves that were then each folded once, then both halves were placed upon each other and joined by hammering, resulting in a triangular shape. The identification of the undertype used for this series in uncertain. While Huth originally surmised that Alexanders were the common host coin, his analysis of the al-Jawf hoard suggested that this was not likely. Though the question of the undertype remains unresolved, the hoard provided strong evidence that this series was not of eastern Arabian origin, but rather from a mint in the region of Wadi al-Jawf, in the Minaian trading sphere.

Closing Date and Time: 15 October 2025 at 11:20:40 ET.

All winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer’s fee.