Greek coins - AR STATER Mazaeus walls of Jerusalem! (JA23110)

CILICIA. Tarsus. Satrap Balacros (333-323 BC). AR stater (25 mm, 10,98 gms) Baltaars seated left holding lotus tipped scepter, ear of grain to left, BLTRZ in Aramaic right / Lion left attacking bull right, club and B above, two rows of turreted and crenelated city walls below. Fine, filled test cut. Sunrise 146. SNG Von Aulock 5965.  

David Hendin, author of "Guide to Biblical Coins" and one of the world's foremost authorities on Holy Land coinage, has proposed that the walls represented on this issue of the satrap Mazaeus might be those of Jerusalem, rather than Tarsus, the city of issue. He translates the Aramaic inscription on the reverse as "Mazaeus who is over Beyond the River and Cilicia." The similarity of this inscription to a phrase used in the Old Testament books Ezra and Nehemiah suggests that it is a coded reference to Jerusalem, whose formidable circuit of walls was famous in antiquity. Mazaeus is also named on coins issued in Judah and Samaria, indicating he had authority in these regions.