Talk:Aretas III

A fact from Aretas III appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 August 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Aretas III commissioned the minting of the first silver Nabataean coins?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2007/August.

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Silver coins

With regards to the silver coins, see citation 3 (Price, M. J.; Recent Acquisitions of Greek Coins by the British Museum; Archaeological Reports, No. 20. (1973 - 1974), p. 70.). The relevant passage is:

"This unpublished piece is the first silver coin issue of the Nabathaen kings, for whom otherwise only drachmas and bronze coins are known; and it was struck almost certainly on Aretas' capture of Damascus in 85 BC. [...] For Aretas' bronze issues at this city see E.T. Newell, Late Seleucid Mints at Ake-Prolemais and Damascus, pp. 92-4.

So yes, the silver coins were highly unusual, which is why I used them as the hook when the article appeared in DYK :) GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 13:03, 16 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]