Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 626. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SAMARIA. Circa 375-333 BCE. AR Obol (0.67 gm, 6h). The god Ana standing right, facing a satrap standing left; thymiaterion between them; all within dotted square / Winged griffin right, bringing down a stag. Meshorer & Qedar 134. Good VF, toned, struck from worn obverse die. ($300)

The Ana and satrap type is copied from the staters of Datames struck at Tarsos in Cilicia (SNG Levante 84), while the closest numismatic parallel for the griffin and stag are the drachms of Ariarathes I struck at Gaziura in Pontos (Simonetta 1). Ariarathes' reign as an independent satrap (333-322 BC) followed the Persian period, thus his coinage and this obol presumably found their inspiration from a common earlier source. The obverse and reverse are inverted from their order in M&Q.