Extremely Rare Qataban Tetradrachm

CNG 102, Lot: 647. Estimate $20000. Sold for $12000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARABIA, Southern. Qataban. Yad'ab Dhubyan Yuhargib. Circa 155-135 BC. AR Tetradrachm (22mm, 16.25 g, 10h). Male head with curly hair right; [yd’]ab dbyn bn s²[?...] (“Yad’ab Dhubyan, son of Sh[…]” in South Arabian letters) above / Bearded male head left, with hair tied around ending in a knot; mlk qtbn (“king of Qataban” in South Arabian) above, so-called ‘oblong symbol’ and Royal Qatabanian monogram to left. Cf. Triton XVII, lot 404 (same rev. die), otherwise unpublished. Near EF, toned. Extremely rare, one of two known.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 78 (26 May 2014), lot 348.

The Qatabanian series with two male heads (cf. Huth 358-385) stands between the earlier coins in imitation of Athens (for a hybrid type, cf. Huth 357) and the emergence of Himyarite coinage in the late first century BC. These coins bear the names of a number of mostly unknown rulers, and abound with monograms. As the ruler’s name can be found on either the obverse (as on this coin) or the reverse (Huth 366-367), it is unclear to which of the two distinctly different heads it refers, and who the respective other head represents. While the present coin is stylistically close to other coins in the name of the same ruler (cf. Huth 359), it seems to add a patronym (Yad’ab Dhubyan, son of Sh[…]).