Greek Coinages of Palestine

The earliest phase of the monetary phenomenon in Palestine (late sixth to early fifth centuries BC) is witnessed by the presence of Greek Archaic silver coins and later, in the mid-fifth century BC, by proper Athenian issues and their imitations. Philistian coinage is one if the most variable artistic numismatic evidence known from Palestine (and beyond). However, the most striking influence on the Philistian coinage is notably Athenian. The people of Philistia observed these foreign motifs, and frequently adopted and adapted them to local use. Jerusalem struck small silver coins bearing the abbreviated geographical name of the province yhd but sometimes bearing the legends of personal names and titles in Persian (and early Hellenistic) times. Finally, there were the Samarian coins, which did not bear inscriptions and are defined as Samarian on the basis of circulation, fabric, metrology, and especially iconography.