Obol

Gaza was among the earliest Philistine and later Persian-administered cities to adopt coinage, and its tiny silver issues reflect the city's role as a commercial hub on the overland trade route connecting Egypt to the Levant. These fractional pieces circulated in an economy where small-denomination silver was essential for day-to-day exchange — not prestige display. The Gitler/Tal typology has done much to untangle Gaza's complex series from neighboring Philistian issues, many of which were previously lumped together under imprecise geographic attributions.