Obverse: A Chalice Surrounded by the
Inscription: “Shekel of Israel/Year Two”
Reverse: Sprig of Three Pomegranates
Surrounded by the Inscription:
“Jerusalem the
Holy”
In 66 A.D., while Nero was Emperor of
Rome, the
last Roman Procurator Florian was
accused of
stealing from the Temple. To mock him,
protestors took up a collection of coins
for the
relief of the "poverty-stricken"
Procurator.
Showing a rather poor sense of humor,
Florian
sent troops to put down the disorder.
This led to
a full-scale rebellion. The Roman troops
eventually surrendered, but were killed
anyway.
By now, the rebellion had grown to a
full-scale
war. The Jews in Jerusalem started
minting their
own coins, with victory slogans, such as
this
Shekel. But there was also fighting
among the
Jews, as the more extreme elements took
control
from (and eliminated) the moderate
leaders,
under whom the rebellion had started.
Nero
sent his distinguished general,
Vespasian, to
stamp out the Jewish rebellion. But
political
troubles at home led Nero to commit
suicide,
and Vespasian headed back to Rome to
claim the
Emperorship for himself, leaving his son
Titus in
charge of the Judaean campaign.
Vespasian was
ultimately successful in his quest for
the throne,
and Titus was also ultimately successful
in
crushing the Judaean rebellion. As a
finishing
touch, the Temple where the last of the
Jewish
rebels in Jerusalem had holed up was
burned to
the ground in 70 B.C.
How many hands have touched a coin in
your
pocket or your purse? What eras and
lands have
the coin traversed on its journey into
our
possession? As we reach into our
pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to
think of
who touched the coin before us, or where
the
coin will venture to after us. More
than money,
coins are a symbol of the state that
struck them,
of a specific time and place, whether
contemporary currencies or artifacts of
a long
forgotten empire. This stunning hand-
struck
coin reveals an expertise of
craftsmanship and
intricate sculptural details that are
often lacking
in contemporary machine-made currencies.
Depicted on the reverse, the pomegranate
was
one of the seven celebrated products of
Palestine
and among the fruits that brought to the
temple
as offerings of the first-fruits. Two
hundred
pomegranates decorated each of the two
columns in the temple and were an
integral part
of the sacred vestment of the High
Priest, as
bells and pomegranates were suspended
from
his mantle. The struggle of the Jewish
people to
rule their homeland, as represented by
this coin,
has finally come to an end in modern
times. This
coin reconnects us with the past, with
those who
fought and struggled for their freedom
against
an oppressive empire almost two thousand
year
ago.
- (C.2070b)
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