165, Lot: 69. Estimate $75. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARABIA, Uncertain mint. Circa 1st century BC-AD. PB 13mm (1.47 g). Tricephalic bust / Camel to right. Unpublished. VF, brownish patina, a few nicks.

A curious and enigmatic piece. The style of the bust is very close to the silver units of the Himyarites, but nothing like this this three-headed depiction is known from that series. The camel, if that is what the creature on the reverse is intended to represent, appears occasionally on coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Philistia. Not enough of the inscriptions are visible to allow a translation, but the few characters that can be seen appear to be Aramaic, which would suggest a more northerly point of origin. Lead pieces are known for the Nabataeans, and this piece possibly can be located somewhere in their sphere on influence.