ANCIENT JEWISH COINS- THE PERSIAN PERIOD

ANCIENT JEWISH COINS- THE PERSIAN PERIOD
Coins of Judiah

YHD Falcon coin

Towards the last decades of the persian period, a massive and signifficant tranformation took place in the holyland and its surroundings. due to the shortage of small change and the dwindling stocks of the athenian tetradrachms in the local markets, the persian authorities have given the right to small provinces in the west of the empire to mint small silver coins. In the holyland 4 authorities gain the right to mint coins. They were Gaza and Ascelon, Sameria, Judia and the trans-jorden.

The coin depicted above is one of the more famouse denominations of this mintage. It depicts a falcon and the head of a local ruler.
the next example given here is of a famous coin, carring the inscription :"HZQIH HPHH" meaning: "Hizqiahu the governor". This coin was discovered at Beith Zor in the north of the Judian Hills and it is belived to represent one of the rulers of the province a few years before the empire's callapse.

Hizqiah the Governor

Meamwhile in the neighbouring province Sameria the sameritans strock their own coins, those coins were completely unknown to us until the year 1971 when the first of those coins appeared on the market. A big breakthrough in the study of this coins took place in 1991 with the publication of a book by Meshorer and Qedar named "the coins of Sameria in the fourth century BCE" and with the discovery of the "sameritan Hoard" and likewise. Today, more than 240 kinds of those coins are known to us and sure new variants will apear with time in the markets and auctions.

through this, there are no more then several thousands of pieces and this make them one of the rarest coins in the holyland numismatic volume.

Coins of Gaza

In the fifth and fourth centuries BCE Gaza was a great regional and maritime power. Through Gaza's port went goods to Greece and Rome and as far as to Carthage. Gaza's supremecy over its rivals to the north and south had given her the power to mint silver coins from as 15 to 0.3 grams. Most of Gaza's coins depict the Athenian goddes and her owl. other, less common denominations of the city depict the owl with a lion on the reverse and the rarest of the denominations is the deer with the inscription M (marnes), the city god of gaza.

Denominations of Gaza

This is the rarest of Gaza's denominations, the deer, the inscription to the upper left reads "Ma(rnes) Aa(za)"
this is a less rare denomination of the Arab-Palestinian types, mostly regarded to be minted in Gaza. the lion is derived from the Archian coins of greece and the owl is considered to be an imitation of the athenian prototype.

this is the most common coin minted in Gaza, it might look as an athenian coin, but some characsteristics are a determinative sign of this mint. This coin type comes in dozens of known vriations, but all share the similar model. On some of those coins the head of Athena is disappearing completly and on others a shadowy impression can be determined to be the head of Aathena.

To the next page

back to Homepage

Denominations of Gaza

This is the rarest of Gaza's denominations, the deer, the inscription to the upper left reads "Ma(rnes) Aa(za)"
this is a less rare denomination of the Arab-Palestinian types, mostly regarded to be minted in Gaza. the lion is derived from the Archian coins of greece and the owl is considered to be an imitation of the athenian prototype.

this is the most common coin minted in Gaza, it might look as an athenian coin, but some characsteristics are a determinative sign of this mint. This coin type comes in dozens of known vriations, but all share the similar model. On some of those coins the head of Athena is disappearing completly and on others a shadowy impression can be determined to be the head of Aathena.