JUDAEA, Bar Kochba Revolt. 132-135 CE. AR Sela – Tetradrachm (25mm, 13.95 g, 1h). Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5 CE). Façade of the Temple at Jerusalem; showbread table within, star above, “Shim‘on” in Hebrew at sides / Bundle of lulav; etrog to left, “For the freedom of Jerusalem” (in Hebrew) around. Mildenberg – (O12/R49 [unlisted die combination]); Kaufman –; Hendin 6439; Meshorer 267; Bromberg 114–22 (same obv. die); Shoshana I 20360 corr. (same dies; incorrect Mildenberg number); Sofaer 107–13; Spaer 194 (same obv. die). Overstruck on an Antioch tetradrachm of Vespasian, struck circa CE 70–71 (cf. McAlee 334–6; the outline of a Flavian style portrait is visible on the reverse, the outline of the eagle and palm frond is visible on the obverse). Near EF.
Here we have the interesting case of a coin of the second great Jewish revolt against Rome overstruck on a coin of the general, and later emperor, Vespasian, who led the Roman response to the first revolt. As David Hendin notes, Bar Kochba’s historically important coins would mark an end to the minting of Jewish coins in antiquity. Though there was little financial incentive for the Jews to strike their own coins during the revolt as all of the Bar Kochba coinage was overstruck on a motley mix of coins already in circulation, Judaean coinage from this period played an integral role in the dissemination of political propaganda. As Meshorer notes: “Not only did [Bar Kochba] deface the portraits of despised emperors by this technique [of overstriking], he was also able to depict Jewish symbols and nationalistic inscriptions.”
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