'Your objection concerning the Greek inscription on the medal of Antigonus is very legitimate. Nevertheless it is there, and that is what constitutes the rarity of the medal which also bears the Samaritan letters. It is not for goodwill or ambition, as you say, that Antigonus used this Greek legend, since the Jews were made to suffer so much by the Seleucids. This was all over with, and the Seleucids did not matter any more; but it was because the Jews were bound by commerce with their neighbors who spoke Greek. The Jews even had names similar to those of the Greeks, such as Antigonus, Alexandra, Alexander, and Aristobulus.
As to what you said that LΓI could not indicate "year 13" on the medal of Herod because it seems to you that it should have been LIΓ, you will forgive me if I tell you that you have not taken into consideration that in Syria and elsewhere numeral letters are put in reverse order. I know only of the towns Sebaste and Nablus in Samaria that put dates in the natural order.
It is not likely that bronze coins issued by Mattitya Antigonus and his grandfather Alexander Yannai were inscribed in Greek for the purpose of facilitating external commerce.
As a matter of fact, dates on coins struck by the Herodians, namely, Herod Antipas, Herod Philip, and Agrippa II, are nearly always written left to right. For example, the date "year 14" on a coin issued by Agrippa II is indicated by LIΔ, and not by LΔΙ'
(English translation from Minc 1985, pp. 114-15)
