Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 631. Estimate $400.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SAMARIA. Circa 375-333 BCE. AR Obol (0.62 gm, 10h). Head of mythical horned bird right in dotted square / Facing head of the Egyptian god Bes, with feather headdress and wings, Persian winged solar disk (Ahura-Mazda) above, four pellets in fields; all in dotted incuse square. Meshorer & Qedar 157. VF, toned, some encrustation. A fascinating amalgamation of Egyptian and Persian symbols. ($400)

M&Q claim to see cuneiform signs above the solar disk. This is shown on their specimen 157.1. However, 157.1 is overstruck, and the cuneiform signs are part of the undertype, which is probably M&Q 129 (seated harper type). The obverse and reverse are inverted from their order in M&Q.