Persian Silver of
Judah--And a Movie on Utube!
The earliest coins with Hebrew inscriptions were struck
during the Persian period. It seems likely that the earliest of those coins
were struck at the early Philistian mint of Gaza. Later, only small
denominations were struck in Judah, quite likely in or very near to Jerusalem.
These are known as “Yehud” coins because most of them are inscribed with the paleo-Hebrew
legend YHD, although some carry the
name Hezekiah and one very rare
variety has the name of a priest named Yochanan.
It was
quite a technical feat for coins to be minted at all in this area, which was
rather out of the way at the time, and did not have great technological
capabilities. The mints in ancient Judah probably quite resembled small
blacksmith or jewelry shops, which have must have been in the precinct of a
fort or a palace because of security matters in the transport of uncoined
silver and then actual coins. These first coins struck in Judah were patterned
after Athenian coins and were struck some time before 333 BCE.
The denominations
of the coins are uncertain. However this group seems to be related to the known
weight of the Judean shekel of 11.4 grams beginning in the Iron Age about 800
BCE. The two denominations of the earliest small silver coins struck in Judah
weigh around either half a gram or a quarter of a gram. These weights
correspond with approximately 1/24 of the known weight of the shekel.
Archaeologists believe that there were 24 gerahs in each shekel at the time,
although in Exodus 30:13 we read “the shekel is twenty gerahs.” This discrepancy may be due to a slightly
different division of the shekel in an earlier period.
Half a
gram is very light and small for a coin. Manufacture of such tiny objects caused
some challenges, because the dies that were created to strike these coins were
very fragile due to their small size. Because of this, the dies were subject to
either heavy wear, or absolute breakage. Numismatists today can track that
process rather precisely if they can identify a sufficient number of specimens.
The most
common of the early Yehud coins is a type with an obverse portrait of Athena
and the reverse portrait of an owl, just like the classic Athenian tetradrachm.
But instead of the AΘE ethnic inscription for Athens, the coin carries the
paleo-Hebrew script YHD. It is estimated that this type represents a full 15%
of the Yehud coins in existence.
Canadian
numismatist JP Fontanille, also a professional musician, has gathered some 225
photos of this coin type in various die stages, and has created a fabulous
brief video accompanied by music he composed and plays.
If you
have ANY INTEREST in understanding the “die states” of coins, this is a MUST
WATCH video, which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD7yg3iA9OQ&feature=youtu.be
Viewing tip: Keep your eyes on the
coins!
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