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‘Atiqot 71 (2012)
ISBN 2948-040X
The Coins from a Roman-Period Farmstead at El-Qabu, South of Ashqelon
(pp. 35*–46*)
Robert Kool
Keywords: coastal plain, numismatics, Serapis, river god Nilus, provincial mints, countermarks, currency
Fifty-seven bronze coins were found in several structures, installations and tombs at El-Qabu. Fifty-three of the coins, including a hoard of twenty-three bronzes, were identified. With the exception of two Hellenistic and three early Roman specimens, as well as a single Byzantine
nummus
(first half of the sixth century), all the isolated coins fall between the second half of the second century and the reign of Maximinian Herculius (286–305 CE). Among the early coins is a rare flan with a trapezoidal section, probably originating in Jerusalem. Another interesting and rare early find is a lead token minted under the Roman administration in Egypt in the first–second centuries CE. The hoard of 23 bronzes was found concealed in a small cavity that had been dug into a floor of beaten earth in Building 4. It consisted of a homogenous group of imperial and provincial bronzes, struck in a limited time range between the mid-second and mid-third centuries CE. The small monetary value of its contents seems to hint that it was deposited by the occupants of the structure.