Triton XVI, Lot: 568. Estimate $500. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SAMARIA. Circa 375-333 BC. AR Hemiobol (6mm, 0.23 g). Bearded Janiform head / Pile of five Athenian tetradrachms (showing reverses). Meshorer & Qedar 142; HGC 10, 428. Near EF, darkly toned.

The obverse of this coin is derived from obols of Cilicia (SNG Levante 201). The reverse concept is nearly unique in ancient numismatics, with its clear representation of the reverses of five Athenian coins. The only comparable type of a 'coin on coin' type that we know of is the Roman Republican denarius of L. Julius Bursio with a subsidiary symbol of two Roman asses (see CNG 38, lot 793). Ronn Berrol, in "Coinage for Redeeming the Firstborn: an Ancient and Modern Jewish Ritual" The Celator, December 2002, pp.14–22, postulates a connection with the pidyon haben ceremony, wherein a Jewish family would pay five shekels to redeem a first-born son, who was to be consecrated to the priesthood.