Bar Kochba Revolt coinage

Bar Kochba silver Shekel/tetradrachm. Obverse: the Jewish Temple facade with the rising star, surrounded by "Shimon". Reverse: A lulav, the text reads: "to the freedom of Jerusalem"

Bar Kochba silver Zuz/denarius. Obverse: trumpets surrounded by "To the freedom of Jerusalem". Reverse: A lyre surrounded by "Year two to the freedom of Israel"

Bar Kochba Revolt coinage were coins issued by the Jews during the Bar Kochba revolt against the Roman Empire of 132-135 AD.

During the Revolt, large quantities of coins were issued in silver and copper with rebellious inscriptions, all being overstruck over foreign (mostly Roman) coins, when a file was used to remove the designs of the original coins, such as the portrait of the Roman Emperor. The undercoin can clearly be seen on some of the silver coins because they were not filed down so as not to lose the value of the silver. On the bronze coins it is very difficult to see the underlying coin because they were filed down prior to the over-striking. In rare instances, the coin cracked when it was overstruck.^[1]

The name "Shim'on" (likely referring to the leader of the Revolt, Shim'on (Simon) Bar Koseba) appears on all of the coins of the Bar Kochba Revolt except for a few types issued at the beginning of the Revolt with the name "Eleazar the Priest (Cohen),". The overstruck silver shekel/tetradrachms (see illustration) are among the most religiously significant coins issued by the ancient Jews, because the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple is shown, with the Ark of the Covenant. The word "Jerusalem" was inscribed around the representation of the Temple. Beginning in the second year of issue and continuing into the final year, a star appeared above the Temple on many coins, probably in reference to Bar Kochba's nickname "Son of the Star". Agricultural symbols connected with the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, such as lulav and etrog, appear on the reverse of some of the smaller bronze coins, surrounded by a Hebrew inscription: 'Year One of the Redemption of Israel', 'Year Two of the Freedom of Israel', or 'For the Freedom of Jerusalem'.^[1]

Alternative attributions

The first group of these coins reviewed by numismatists were 10 silver pieces and one bronze piece found in the mid-nineteenth century.^[2] By 1881 the number of coins had grown to 43,^[2] and many more have been found since.^[3] These coins were first attributed to Bar Kokhba by Moritz Abraham Levy in 1862 and Frederic Madden in 1864.^[2]

Since the mid-nineteenth century, a number of scholars have provided alternative attributions for the coins. Claude Reignier Conder, writing in 1909, suggested that the coins were forgeries of the coins of Simon Thassi.^[4] Wolf Wirgin, writing in 1959, suggested that the coins were instead minted by King Herod Agrippa^[5] Alice Muehsam, writing in 1966, suggested that those coins with dates such as "Year 1" were actually First Jewish Revolt coinage.^[6]

See also

• List of historical currencies
• Shekel
• Zuz
• ma'ah

References

1. Handbook of Biblical Numismatics pg 19
2. History of Jewish coinage, and of money in the Old and New Testament, Frederic William Madden, Pegasus Pub. Co., 1967, Introduction, "Madden's chapter IX, "Money Struck during the Second Revolt of the Jews," lists only those coins of "Simon Bar Cochab" which were overstruck on coins of the Roman emperors from Vespasian onwards, and which could not therefore fit in any way into Madden's scheme of the "Simon" or "Eleazar" coins allegedly of the First Revolt. He notes, of course, that some of the coins of Bar Cochab "appear to have been struck from the same stamp as those of Simon son of Gioras." His attribution of these coins to Bar Kochba follows that of Levy. The original group attributed to Bar Kochba numbered 10 silver pieces and one bronze piece in Madden's book of 1864; in 1881 they had grown to 43, including the tetradrachm with the star."
3. , Historia Judaica 11.1, April 1949
4. The City of Jerusalem By Colonel C. R. Conder (1909), "Stating that "the forgery of Jewish coins is still common in Palestine", Conder wrote that "the theory according to which [Bar Kochba] struck coins in Jerusalem demands notice, in connection with the history of the city, but it appears to be one of those learned fallacies which are very long in dying""
5. The History of Coins and Symbols in Ancient Israel, by Wolf Wirgin and Siegfried Mandel, 1959
6. Alice Muehsam, Coin and temple: a study of the architectural representation on ancient Jewish coins, 1966

Further reading

• Adler, Yonatan (2008). "The Temple Willow-Branch Ritual Depicted on Bar Kokhba Denarii". Israel Numismatic Journal. 16: 129–133.
• Davies, William David et al, eds. (2006). The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period. Cambridge University Press. pp. 113–117. ISBN 978-0-521-77248-8.
• Fine, Steven (2005). Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world: toward a new Jewish archaeology. Cambridge University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-521-84491-8.
• Goodman, Martin (2005). "Coinage and Identity: The Jewish Evidence". In C. J. Howgego, Volker Heuchert, Andrew M. Burnett. Coinage and identity in the Roman Provinces. Oxford University Press. pp. 163–166. ISBN 978-0-19-926526-8.
• Hendin, David (2006). "A Bronze Test Strike from the Bar Kokhba Revolt". Israel Numismatic Research. Israel Numismatic Society. 1: 111–116.
• Schäfer, Peter (2003). The Bar Kokhba war reconsidered: new perspectives on the second Jewish revolt against Rome. Mohr Siebeck. p. 95. ISBN 978-3-16-148076-8.
• Schäfer, Peter (2003). The history of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world. Psychology Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-415-30585-3.
• Zerubavel, Yael (1997). Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. University of Chicago Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-0-226-98158-1.