First Revolt Shekel Sells for $1.1 Million

When it comes to exchange rates, the euro, pound and yuan have nothing on the ancient shekel. A silver shekel from the first year of the First Jewish Revolt was presented at auction earlier this year as part of the Shoshana Collection of Ancient Coins of Judea. Going in, estimates priced the rare coin at $950,000, but when the auctioneer’s gavel finally fell, an anonymous buyer had paid $1.1 million for this small piece of rebel currency. Although publicly unidentified, the buyer is a private collector known to be generous with loans of his artifacts to museums in Israel […]