Nabataean Coinage

Nabataean coinage was the money issued by the kings of the Nabataeans, an Arab people whose kingdom, centred on Petra in present-day Jordan, controlled caravan routes between Arabia and the Mediterranean. The kingdom struck coins from around the late second or early first century BCE until the Roman emperor Trajan annexed it in 106 CE.

The coinage consisted of silver drachms and didrachms and a large output of bronze. It is notable for its Nabataean Aramaic legends, its portraits of queens alongside kings, and the steady fall in silver content during its final decades.

The Nabataeans grew rich by carrying and taxing frankincense, myrrh and spices brought north from southern Arabia. Their wealth depended on long-distance trade, and coinage came relatively late, long after the Nabataeans had been handling Greek and Phoenician silver. Early commerce in the region also relied on weighed metal and barter. When the kings did begin to mint, coins served both as a practical tool for markets and tolls and as a statement of royal authority.

The first Nabataean coins are small bronzes usually attributed to Aretas II, around the end of the second century BCE, though the attribution is debated. Aretas III, who briefly controlled Damascus in the 80s and 70s BCE, struck bronze and silver there in Greek style, calling himself "Philhellene" (friend of the Greeks). These Damascus issues followed the conventions of the Seleucid coinage that had circulated in Syria.

From the first century BCE the kings struck coins at Petra with legends in the Nabataean script, the ancestor of the Arabic alphabet. Silver drachms show the king's portrait, and from the reign of Obodas III onwards many issues pair the king with the queen, either on the reverse or as jugate busts side by side. Queens such as Huldu and Shaqilath, wives of Aretas IV, appear by name, which is unusual in ancient coinage.

Aretas IV (9 BCE – 40 CE), the king whose ethnarch in Damascus is mentioned by the apostle Paul, was the most prolific issuer. His long reign produced large quantities of silver and bronze, many dated by regnal year. Silver weights were broadly comparable to the drachms of neighbouring cities, and Nabataean coins circulated alongside Tyrian shekels and Roman denarii.

Under the last kings, Malichus II and Rabbel II, the silver content of Nabataean drachms fell sharply, and late issues contain far less silver than early ones. This currency debasement has been read as a sign of financial pressure, possibly linked to changes in trade routes that sent more goods by sea through Egypt. Debased coins tended to drive better silver out of use, as Gresham's law would predict.

In 106 CE Trajan absorbed the kingdom into the new Roman province of Arabia. Roman silver struck for the province, together with civic bronzes of Petra and Bostra, replaced the royal coinage. Hoards suggest that Nabataean drachms remained in circulation for some time afterwards and were eventually withdrawn.

Nabataean coins are a primary source for the order and dates of the kings, for the role of royal women, and for the development of the Nabataean script. They also show how a desert trading state adopted coinage from its Hellenistic neighbours, such as the Ptolemies, while giving it a distinctly Arabian character. Nearby, the cities of the Decapolis and caravan cities such as Palmyra took different paths.

• British Museum – Collection online
• American Numismatic Society