Judaea: JUDAEA. Jewish War (AD 66-70). AE prutah (18mm, 2.58 gm, 5h). NGC Choice XF 2/5 - 3/5....

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JUDAEA. Jewish War (AD 66-70). AE prutah (18mm, 2.58 gm, 5h). NGC Choice XF 2/5 - 3/5. Jerusalem, dated Year 2 (AD 67/8). Year Two (Paleo-Hebrew), amphora with broad rim and two handles / The Freedom of Zion (Paleo-Hebrew), vine leaf on small branch with tendril. GBC 6, 6389.

From The Merrill A. Gibson Collection of Ancient Coins. Ex Apollo Numismatics, private sale with old dealer's tag attached.

After decades of abuses heaped by the Romans upon the denizens of Judaea, the Jews were ripe for revolt. In AD 66, the Procurator Gessius Florus summarily seized 16 talents of silver from the Jerusalem temple. A massive protest by the citizens brought a typically brutal Roman response and more than 3,000 Jews were slain. Pleas for calm by the client King Agrippa II fell on deaf ears as the city and countryside rose in full-scale revolt. Florus and the Roman garrison were driven from the city; an attempt by the legate of nearby Syria to put down the rebellion led to the loss of an entire Legion, XII Fulminata, and consternation in Rome. Once freed of the Romans, Jerusalem temple authorities began striking their own silver coinage - the first time that a sovereign Jewish government had done so.

The mint was likely located within the Temple complex and the silver provided by the stockpiles of Tyrian shekels kept in the treasury. Mintage was carefully controlled for weight, fineness and the legends each coin carried. The coins featured Jewish symbolism dating back centuries and slogans ("For the Freedom of Jerusalem" and "For the Redemption of Zion") that showed the leaders of the rebellion well understood how to use coins for mass communication. Workmanship in the manufacture of these thick shekels and half-shekels (smaller silver fractions were also struck in tiny numbers) was unusually high, given the wartime conditions under which they were created. Coins were dated to the year the revolt started; coins dated Year 1 (AD 66/7) are considered scarce, with about 120-150 recorded specimens; Years 2 and 3 (AD 67-69) are relatively common, with known examples in the low hundreds, Year 4 issues quite rare (about 40 known examples), and Year 5 (AD 70) the rarest of all, with a dozen "regular" issues and 14 of "irregular" shekels recorded.

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