Spending Your Way through Jewish History

046

Coins, ancient and modern, facilitate the flow of commerce. But their usefulness does not end there. Coins are also effective tools of mass communication—to disseminate propaganda. This was especially important in the ancient world, before television or even the printing press. Thanks to this second role, coins also provide considerable historical information. And they are often very beautiful, too.

In these pages, we present a series of “firsts” in coins used in Judea—the first Temple tax coin, the first coin used in Judea with a portrait on it, and so on. These examples can serve as an introduction to the world of ancient Jewish coins, including the history they reveal and the important motifs they bear.

047

Before 333 B.C.E.

First Coin from Jerusalem

Material: Silver

Denomination: Hemi-Obol

Size: 1/4 inch in diameter

This silver “YHD” coin was the first to be minted in Jerusalem. “YHD,” at upper right on the reverse (back) side of the coin above, is the consonantal spelling of Yehud, the Persian name for the province of Judea. (The Persians ruled Judea from 538 B.C.E., when they defeated the Babylonians, until 333 B.C.E., when Alexander the Great swept through the Near East.) Because the “YHD” coins are very small, it seems likely that they were struck in Jerusalem by local Jewish authorities, though at the direction of the Persians. (If the Persians themselves had minted them, they almost certainly would have issued larger coins as well.) The known examples are all tiny (about 1/4 inch in diameter, only half the size of a dime) and were worth one-twelfth of a drachm; a skilled craftsman earned about a drachm a day.

A lily graces the obverse (front) side of the “YHD” coin. Lilies were commonly used as architectural motifs in ancient Israel, especially on Jerusalem’s public buildings, including the First Temple: “The capitals at the tops of the pillars in the [Temple] vestibule were shaped like lilies and were four cubits high,” declares 1 Kings 7:19.

Over the centuries the flower came to stand for the city of Jerusalem itself. The Crusaders introduced lilies into European Christian art; because of its association with the Crusaders, the lily came to stand for chivalry, and the French nobility adopted the fleur-de-lis as its symbol. The similarity between the lily on this fourth century B.C.E. coin and the fleur-de-lis is striking.

305 B.C.E.

First Royal Portrait

Material: Silver

Denomination: Tetradrachm

Size:1 inch in diameter

Alexander the Great, the mightiest military leader the ancient world had ever seen, brought an end to Persian rule over Judea when he defeated King Darius in 333 B.C.E. at Issus, in modern Turkey. Following Alexander’s sudden death in 323 B.C.E. a power struggle arose in the eastern Mediterranean. In 305 B.C.E. Ptolemy, a former general under Alexander who had established himself as satrap of Egypt, assumed the title basileus, “king.” The first in Egypt’s long line of Greek monarchs (all of whom were called Ptolemy), he gained control of Judea in 301 B.C.E.

Ptolemy I was the first ruler of Judea to place his own portrait on his coins (some numismatists believe he was the first person ever to mint a coin with his own likeness). The silver tetradrachm (four-drachm coin) shown here, from 305 B.C.E., depicts Ptolemy I wearing a diadem, or royal headband. On the reverse, an eagle stands erect on a thunderbolt, encircled by a legend reading “of King Ptolemy.” Eagles and thunderbolts were symbols of kingly power in Greece in the Archaic (c. 8th-7th centuries B.C.E.) and Classical (c. 6th-4th centuries B.C.E.) periods, when they were associated with Zeus, father of the Greek gods and “king” of the pantheon. By using such mythological imagery on his coins, Ptolemy I presented himself as a Greek king in the tradition of Alexander the Great and the Athenian rulers of the fifth century B.C.E.

048

130 B.C.E.

First Jewish Coin From Jerusalem

Material:Bronze

Denomination: Prutah

Size:1/2 inch in diameter

Following the death of Alexander the Great, his empire broke in two: the Ptolemaic kingdom, based in Egypt, ruled the southern half, while the Seleucid kingdom, based in Syria, ruled the northern half. Judea was caught between the two. In the third century B.C.E., the two kingdoms fought five major wars; foreign troops were garrisoned all over Judea. In about 200 B.C.E. the Seleucid king Antiochus III gained control over the region.

This widespread foreign presence led to tensions within the Jewish community between those who wished to adopt Hellenistic ways and those who did not. The situation was made worse by Antiochus IV, who unleashed a wave of religious persecution in 167 B.C.E. The Jewish response was not long in coming. Led by a priest named Mattathias and his five sons, particularly Judah Maccabee, an armed Jewish revolt eventually succeeded in shaking off foreign rule and establishing, in 142 B.C.E., the first independent Jewish state in nearly half a millennium.

The coin shown here is the first coin to be minted by a Jewish government in Jerusalem. Issued by John Hyrcanus I, the High Priest (the title used by the highest governing Hasmonean authority at the time), it evokes the glories of ages past. (The name Hasmonean comes from an ancestor of Mattathias.) The coin was worth one prutah; a loaf of bread cost ten prutot. The obverse bears a legend in paleo-Hebrew script, the script used before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. It reads: “Yehohanan [John] the High Priest and the Council of the Jews.” The use of pre-Exilic (before the Babylonian Exile) script was deliberately anachronistic, hearkening back to the days of Israel’s glory.

On the reverse, in between the horns of a double cornucopia (the “horn of plenty,” a fertility symbol taken from Greek iconography), a small pomegranate can be seen. The pomegranate, also a fertility symbol because of its many seeds, was regularly used as a design element in art and architecture, and dates back at least to the time of Solomon’s Temple: “There were two hundred pomegranates in rows all round [the capitals of the Temple],” according to 1 Kings 7:20. The only surviving object that may have come from the First Temple is an inscribed ivory pomegranate, which served as the head of a priest’s staff.^a

103 B.C.E.

First Bilingual Jewish Coin

Material: Bronze

Denomination: Prutah

Size: 6/10 inch in diamter

This coin was minted by the Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 B.C.E.), son of John Hyrcanus I, who during his reign gained control of most of the territory of the ancient Davidic kingdom. Like the preceding Hasmonean coin, this one, too, was worth one prutah.

On the obverse, wrapping around an anchor, is the legend in Greek, “of King Alexander” (Basileos Alexandrou). Alexander Jannaeus was the first Hasmonean ruler to claim the title of king. On the reverse around the edge of the coin is a circle that is a stylized representation of a diadem similar to the one visible on the portrait coin of Ptolemy. Inside the diadem is a star motif, with paleo-Hebrew letters interspersed among the rays that spell out “Yehonatan [Jonathan, Jannaeus’s Hebrew name] the King.”

The use of both Greek and Hebrew on this coin indicates the spread of Hellenistic culture into Judea and also the reassertion of Jewish religious and cultural practices under the Hasmoneans. The tradition of bilingual coins in Judea continues to this day: The modern state of Israel mints coins with legends in both Hebrew and Arabic.

049

87/86 B.C.E.

First Temple Tax Coin

Material: Silver

Denomination: Half-Shekel

Size: 8/10 inch in diameter

In the mid-second century B.C.E., the Hasmoneans formalized the payment of an annual Temple tax based on the requirement in Exodus 30:13 that “Each one… is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary weight… This half shekel is an offering to the Lord.” The first coin to be specified as acceptable payment for this tax—levied on all Jewish males over the age of 20 in Israel and abroad—was the so-called “Shekel of Tyre.”

The example shown at left, a silver coin over 8/10 inch in diameter and dating from 87/86 B.C.E., displays on the obverse a bust of Melqart, the god of the Phoenician city of Tyre, who wears a crown of laurel, and on the reverse, an eagle perching on a ship’s prow. The “Shekel of Tyre” poses an intriguing question: Why would such a coin, with its depictions of a pagan deity and a Greco-Roman eagle, be welcomed at the Jewish Temple? Would it be on account of the recognized purity and weight of the coin, or because the Biblical prohibition was interpreted as applying only to the making and worship of graven images, not to their use as coins in commerce? The value of a half-shekel is two Roman denarii, which would have paid a vineyard worker for two days’ labor.

5 C.E.

First Jewish Self-Portrait

Material: Bronze

Denomination: Not known

Size: 8/10 inch in diameter

Philip (4 B.C.E.-34 C.E.), a son of Herod the Great and the first husband of the infamous dancer Salome, became Roman client ruler over the Galilee after his father’s death.

Philip was the first Jewish ruler of Judea to mint a coin bearing a depiction of himself. Because of the Biblical commandment against “graven images,” Jewish rulers generally did not place images of people or animals on their coinage. Herod Philip’s realm, however, included a large non-Jewish Syrian population, who would not be offended.

The Herod Philip self-portraits are extremely rare; the example shown here bears the head of Philip surrounded by the legend, in Greek, “Of Philip the Tetrarch” (provincial governor). The reverse depicts a four-column temple with the Greek words for Caesar Augustus.

050

68 C.E.

First Silver Jewish Coin

Material: Silver

Denomination: Shekel

Size: 8/10 inch in diameter

The First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–70 C.E.), mounted by a disparate band of insurgent groups, posed a grave challenge to Roman authority for four years. The rebels struck a symbolic blow against their oppressors by minting a coin made of precious metal—the first silver Jewish coin. This “Shekel of Israel,” struck during the second year of the Revolt, displays on the obverse what is thought to be an Omer Cup, a ceremonial vessel used in the Temple for holding fruits and grain. The reverse depicts three pomegranates possibly attached to the top of a staff (like the ivory pomegranate possibly from Solomon’s Temple). The three legends—in paleo-Hebrew script—read: “Shekel of Israel,” “Jerusalem the Holy” and “Year Two” (the second year of the Revolt, 68 C.E.). During the Roman period the basic Roman coin denomination was the denarius, and a shekel was worth four denarii.

69 C.E.

Judæa Capta Coin

Material: Bronze

Denomination: Sestertius

Size: 7/10 inch in diameter

The First Jewish Revolt was largely crushed by the Roman army under the leadership of Vespasian, who served first as the Roman commander in Judea and then as emperor from 69 to 79 C.E. Beginning in his first year as emperor, Vespasian minted a series of victory coins; among these is the first coin to bear the word Judaea in the legend. (The coin shown here was struck in 71 C.E.) Vespasian’s bronze sestertius (a quarter of a denarius) bears a portrait of the laurel-wreathed emperor with the Latin legend “Imp[erator] Caes[ar] Vespas[ia]n Aug[ustus],” “Leader Caesar Vespasian Augustus” (the last word is a title meaning “revered”). On the other side is a haunting picture of a Roman soldier dominating a captive woman slumped beside a palm tree. She is a personification of Judea, which was once again subservient to Rome. Vespasian’s son Titus (emperor from 79–81 C.E.) completed his father’s campaign, laying waste to the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E..

70 C.E.

Rare Year 5 of Revolt Coin

Material: Silver

Denomination: Shekel

Size: 8/10 inch in diameter

As the preceding coin shows, already in 69 C.E. the Romans had the upper hand in suppressing the Jewish Revolt. Nonetheless, even in 70 C.E., the Revolt’s fifth year, some rebels were continuing to hold out. The best known among them were the rebels at Masada, the mountaintop palace and fortress built by Herod the Great. As this rare Year 5 coin shows, the Jewish rebels were still minting coins even at this late stage of the rebellion. Yigael Yadin, who excavated Masada in the 1960s, found 17 Revolt coins in one hoard, including three Year 5 coins (only six other Year 5 coins had been previously found). Yadin’s finds were the first Revolt coins to be discovered in a controlled archaeological excavation.

The Year 5 coin shown here depicts on its front a chalice with the words “Shekel of Israel” and the letters shin and heh, abbreviations for “Year 5.” On the reverse are pomegranates surrounded by the words “Jerusalem the Holy.”

051

132 C.E.

First Bar-Kokhba Coin

Material: Silver

Denomination: Sela

Size: 1 inch in diameter

Sixty-two years after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, Shimon Bar-Kokhba (or Kosiba, as we know from contemporaneous inscriptions) led the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (often called the Bar-Kokhba Revolt). The new revolutionary government, like the one that had seized power two generations before, immediately minted silver coinage. Their large silver sela coin (like the shekel, equal to four Roman denarii), struck in Year 3 of the Revolt, or 134 C.E., features the façade of the destroyed Jerusalem Temple, with perhaps the Ark of the Covenant visible within. The legend “Simon” (Shimon in Hebrew) refers to Bar-Kokhba. The reverse depicts a lulav and etrog, fruit and branches used in the Jewish festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles). About a decade before the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, the yearly rent on a house with a farm was ten selas.

A close look at the reverse reveals the ghostly outline of what looks like an imperial head (the nose points to 4 o’clock). In fact, the head is that of Vespasian; his surprising reappearance here is due to the fact that the Bar-Kokhba rebels used circulating Roman currency as “blanks” for their own coins. Under-images like this one can be seen on many coins dating from the time of the Second Jewish Revolt.

The Bar-Kokhba Revolt was crushed in 135 C.E., marking the end of independent Jewish rule until the emergence of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

For more on this subject, see David Hendin, “Guide to Biblical Coins,” 4th ed. (New York: Amphora).

Coins, ancient and modern, facilitate the flow of commerce. But their usefulness does not end there. Coins are also effective tools of mass communication—to disseminate propaganda. This was especially important in the ancient world, before television or even the printing press. Thanks to this second role, coins also provide considerable historical information. And they are often very beautiful, too. In these pages, we present a series of “firsts” in coins used in Judea—the first Temple tax coin, the first coin used in Judea with a portrait on it, and so on. These examples can serve as an introduction to […]