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Auction: 23007 - Ancient Coins Including the 'Kyrios' Collection of Greek Coins and featuring the 'Ostorius' Collection of Roman Gold
Lot: 201

Roman Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt (AD 132-135) AR Shekel (or Tetradrachm), undated, attributed to year 3 = AD 134-135, 'Simon' (Paleo-Hebrew), tetrastyle façade of the Temple of Jerusalem, show bread table or Ark of the Covenant in chest form with semicircular lid and short legs, seen from a narrow side, star above façade rev. 'for the freedom of Jerusalem' (Paleo-Hebrew), lulav with etrog at left, 13.83g (Hendin 1411; Mildenberg 84.4 (O12/R65); TJC 267), lustrous and well-struck, wear to edges typical of issue, but an exceedingly rare die combination, especially so in this condition, excellent and good very fine

PROVENANCE

Spink, by private treaty, 17 January 1999, with ticket (mis-attributed to Mildenberg 57 - £1,400 [Sale Doc. #06 CSS23301]

Purchased by Spink, 14 January 1997 [Purchase Doc. #01 V0000887]



In AD 132, a revolt once more erupted in Judaea led by Simon Bar Kokhba, a final stab of resistance against the Roman occupiers. Simon, styling himself as nasi "prince" of Israel, managed to establish an independent enclave in the province which held out for four years before being ultimately crushed by Hadrian's legions. Much like the Jewish war, coinage was struck with bold Zionist slogans proclaiming the freedom of Israel and Jerusalem. Israel was used in opposition to the Roman name for the province Judaea rejecting the Roman taxonomy altogether. Moreover, the legend was once more proclaimed in the paleo-Hebrew script, a form that no longer existed in common use. Israel's glorious Iron age past was invoked under the likes of King David.


The boldness of this coinage did not stop at the legend alone. Far more unambiguous than the Jewish war, distinctively Jewish iconography is displayed to emotive effect. Jewish 'iconography' itself is a problematic category not least because of the command in Exodus 30:4 not to make graven images. Simon could not simply produce coinage with his face on in Hellenistic or Roman style. Nevertheless, the iconography deployed on his coinage is no less politically charged.


The obverse features the Temple in Jerusalem which had been destroyed by Titus and his army 62 years previously. Two generations of Jews had passed with no focal point of their worship, many would not have even knew what the temple had looked like. Even more strikingly however, is the presence of the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. The Ark was already destroyed before the second temple - the image of the Temple invoked therefore is it at its very height. Much like the legend this is an aspirational statement. The temple site had long since become a Roman temple, and two years before the revolt, Hadrian had rebranded Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, a Roman colony. At the point where Jewish identity had been most eroded, the Bar Kokhba coins invoke a better age of the Jewish state and promise a restoration.


The source of the metal for these coins is also striking. Unlike during the Jewish war where they were able to use up the temples silver supply, all of the Bar Kokhba coinage was overstruck. This gave the coins a negative fiduciary value - money was actually lost in the production of these coins. These coins, thus, were an entirely a political coinage, struck to get a message out.


The hope of Jewish freedom and the establishment of Israel was of course all a pipe dream, not least because Simon never got anywhere near Jerusalem. There is even no real evidence that his coins even got that far. However, despite the failure these coins endured as emotive symbols of Jewish identity. Later hoards have been found which have included high value Roman Imperial gold and silver coins which also include some low value Bar Kokhba bronzes.


One such hoard found in Te-omin Cave including a few pieces from the Jewish War and even a Hasmonean Bronze issue. Piercing of these coins in antiquity was also common, indicating that these coins remained popular to collect long after the revolt failed.

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Estimate
£6,000 to £8,000

Starting price
£5000