Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1683. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $165. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARAB-BYZANTINE. Time of al-Malik or later. 685-705 AD. Lead Seal (7.83 gm). For Filastin (Jerusalem in Palestine). Arabic legend-"The Province of Filiastin". Uniface. Good VF, gray-brown patina. ($150)

Although this seal is purely Arabic, it demonstrates how the new Muslim rulers of Palestine took over the bureaucratic practices of the Byzantines, using lead seals as controls for administrative and legal documents.