Circa 353-333 BCE
AR Drachm 14mm, 3.94 g, 12h
Imitating Athens pi-style coinage. Helmeted head of Athena right, with profile eye and pi-style palmette, Aramaic M horizonally on cheek (only traces visible) / Owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig and crescent to left.
Gitler & Tal V.25D; HGC 10, 542
Gaza is actually one of the oldest settlements on Earth. Someone has lived there for at least 5000 years and records stretch back to 1500 years that mention this city that’s long been on the boundary between Asia and Africa.
Pretty much every one of its neighbors has occupied it at one point or another and the city was already ancient when Alexander the Great ordered it to surrender. It’s king, Batis, wasn’t fond of that idea, so Alexander embarked on a particularly blood siege, at the end of which Batis was dragged by a chariot and every inhabitant was either killed or sold into slavery. Alexander then repopulated it with bedouins.
The city also took front and center with the Battle of Gaza, which pitted Ptolemy I Soter against Demetrios I Poliorketes. Ptolemy won that battle, though Demetrios later achieved a huge victory at Salamis. Still, Ptolemy’s victory prevented Demetrios and Antigonos from overrunning Egypt.
Later, Gaza was nearly annihilated by Alexander Jannaeus, after which it came under Roman control and was rebuilt by them.
Gaza coins from the Persian occupation up to its destruction by Alexander the Great are identifiable from the Aramaic ‘m’ on designs that mimic the famous Athenian owl coinage. Today, we don’t know exactly what ‘m’ stood for, but it may be for ‘Marna’, who was their chief deity.