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Extremely Rare Year One Bar Kokhba Silver Zuz
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Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Zuz (3.15 g), 132-135 CE. Year 1 (132/3 CE). ‘Eleazar the priest’
(Paleo-Hebrew), jug with handle; at right, willow branch. Rev. ‘Year one of the redemption of Israel’
(Paleo-Hebrew), grape bunch with branch and small leaf. (Mildenberg 1 (O1/R1); TJC 219; Hendin 1374).
Overstruck on a denarius of Trajan, with legend and portrait on host coin partially visible.
Choice very fine.
$ 20,000
Purchased privately from H. Kriendler, March 1990.
The silver zuzim of the Bar Kokhba War were regularly overstruck on Roman imperial denarii and provincial drachms from Cap-
padocia and Bostra that had been captured by the rebels from the invading Roman forces. The types seem to be influenced by the
bronze pruthot of the earlier Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE) which featured an amphora and a vine leaf. The zuzim of the Bar Kokhba
War mirror this typology by depicting a one-handled jug on the obverse and a grape bunch on the reverse, and those of the first
year of the war (132/3 CE) are especially notable because they name “Eleazar the priest,” a mysterious figure who disappears from
the coins in the subsequent years of issue except for some mules. It is often suggested that he is none other than Rabbi Eleazar of
Modein, an uncle of Simon bar Kokhba who seems to have lent his religious authority to the cause of war against the Romans. Later,
after having begun doubting his actions and planning to surrender to the forces of Hadrian, Bar Kokhba reportedly kicked him to
death.
Very Rare Year One ‘Abu Jara’
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Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Æ Large Bronze (17.95 g), 132-135 CE. Year 1 (132/3 CE). ‘Jerusalem’
(Paleo-Hebrew) within wreath. Rev. ‘Year one of the redemption of Israel’ (Paleo-Hebrew), amphora with
two handles. (Mildenberg 12 (O3/R4); TJC 221; Hendin 1375).
Very Rare.
Dark sandy green patina on a
perfectly round flan. Very fine.
$ 15,000
Purchased privately at the NYINC, December 1993.
Like the silver zuz, the large bronze denomination of the first year (132/3 CE) of the Bar Kokhba War also takes its typological cues
from earlier Jewish coinage. The wreathed paleo-Hebrew inscription naming Jerusalem, the coinage was almost certainly inspired by
the ubiquitous prutot of the Hasmonean high priests and priest-kings. This hearkened back to the lost glory days of the late second
and early first centuries BCE when Judaea was a free and powerful state that struck fear into the hearts of its many pagan neighbors,
but it may also have been intended to make a direct connection between Simon bar Kokhba and the Hasmonean dynasty for the
sake of legitimacy. It is probably no coincidence that both Bar Kokhba and the Hasmonaeans hailed from the town of Modein in
the Judaean Shephelah. The amphora reverse is very similar to that found on prutot of the first failed Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE) and
serves to connect the Bar Kokhba War to the previous tragic struggle of the Judaean Jews against Rome.