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Address
6 Batak St.
Varna, 9000
BULGARIA
Work Hours
Monday to Friday: 7AM - 7PM
Weekend: 10AM - 5PM
38,00 €
Hand-struck Silver Jewish Zuz Coin (14.7mm, 3.37g.) Judaea Bar Kokhba Revolt Undated Year 3 (134/5 CE), mint of Jerusalem, struck 132-135 A.D. References: (Hendin 1435; Meshorer, Treasury 252 no. 274a; Mildenberg 277 f. no. 204 (O24/R132)).
Please allow us up to 3 business days to ship your product. Small variations in shape, weight, and color are to be expected as each piece is handmade.
The Bar Kokhba War (132-135 CE) broke out when Hadrian decided to refound Jerusalem – still largely ruined from the disastrous Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE) – as the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina. Although Jewish discontent had already erupted into violence in the Diaspora during the reign of Trajan, the Jews of Judaea seem not to have risen up against the Romans until this threatened abomination against the site of the Temple and the surrounding Holy City. The leader of this new rebellion, which took the form of a bloody guerilla war, was Simon bar Kokhba who had messianic pretensions and gained a reputation as a great warrior. Unfortunately, although Bar Kokhba managed to make Hadrian pay dearly for Aelia Capitolina, when the emperor assembled an army of six full legions to invade Judaea in 134 CE the rebellion was soon crushed. In punishment almost the entirety of Judaea was laid waste by the victorious Romans and the Jewish population destroyed or driven out.
In order to fund the rebellion, Bar Kokhba and his supporters used what circulating coins they could find or capture from the Romans and restruck them with new types more suitable for their revolutionary purposes. The most remarkable and desirable of the new types were used for the silver sela overstruck primarily on Syrian and Phoenician tetradrachms. The obverse features a depiction of the façade of the Jerusalem Temple with an uncertain object inside, which has been variously interpreted as the show bread table or the Ark of the Covenant. It has been suggested that the Bar Kokhba rebels intended to rebuild the Temple, but the presence of either the show bread table or the Ark – items lost at the end of the Jewish Revolt or earlier – seems to imply that the image represents the idea of the Temple to rally support rather than any real edifice planned by the Bar Kokhba rebels. The reverse type looks back to the coinage of the Jewish Revolt in its depiction of the lulav and etrog associated with the Fest of Tabernacles.
DESIGN:
Obverse side
‘Shimon’ (n Palaeo-Hebrew) around bunch of grapes
Reverse side
‘For the freedom of Jerusalem’ (in Palaeo-Hebrew) around lyre with three strings
A perfect choice for Numismatists, Historians, Military Veterans, Collectors.
Weight | 3,37 g |
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Dimensions | 14,7 mm |
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