The
coin reverse shows Noah and his wife twice. On the left they have
arrived on Mt. Ararat but even more interestingly on the right they are in
transit, adrift in the ark; shown somewhat surprisingly to the modern viewer as
a simple box or rather a chest or lid (and conveniently labeled with Noah's
name in Greek: NΩЄ. Above the dove with the olive branch sets the scene
from Genesis 8:10–11.[3]
By the way, if you are interested in having such a coin, you might need deep pockets. Markowitz notes that one sold for $24,000 in 2002.[6] Another one with four holes drilled in it sold for $16,500 in 2010.[7]
[1] Richard Abdy and
Amelia Dowler, Coins and the Bible (London: Spink & Son, 2013), 73,
75.
[2] Mike
Markowitz, “Ships on Ancient Coins,” Coin
Week (April 20, 2015). http://www.coinweek.com/ancient-coins/ships-on-ancient-coins
[3] Abdy and Dowler, Coins
and the Bible, 75.
[4] Markowitz,
“Ships on Ancient Coins.”
[5]
κιβωτός, BDAG. It is interesting that
although the Hebrew tebah is used of the
“basket” that baby Moses is placed in (Exod 2:3, 5), in the LXX kibotos is not used but rather the term thibis.
[6] Markowitz,
“Ships on Ancient Coins.”
[7]
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=910868.
Special thanks to Russell Atherton for providing this information as well as Markowitz’s
article.
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