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Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Æ Small Bronze (5.28 g), 132-135 CE. Year 2 (133/4 CE). ‘Jerusalem’
(Paleo-Hebrew), seven-branched palm tree with two bunches of dates. Rev. ‘Year two of the redemption of
Israel’ (Paleo-Hebrew), bunch of grapes with branch and small leaf. (Mildenberg 153 (O2/R6); TJC 266;
Hendin 1410). Sandy greenish-brown desert patina. About extremely fine.
$ 500
Purchased privately, January 1988.
Magnificent Mint State Bar Kokhba Silver Sela
130 Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Sela (14.53 g), 132-135 CE. Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5 CE).
‘Simon’ (Paleo-Hebrew), tetrastyle façade of the Temple of Jerusalem; show bread table or Ark of
the Covenant in chest form with semicircular lid and short legs, seen from a narrow side; above façade, star.
Rev. ‘For the freedom of Jerusalem’ (Paleo-Hebrew), lulav with etrog at left. (Mildenberg 73 (O11/R42);
TJC 267; Hendin 1411).
Very rare - only five specimens cited by Mildenberg.
Struck on a huge flan and lus-
trous surfaces. Mint state.
$ 6,000
Purchased privately from D. Hendin, February 1996.
This and the following undated sela’im were struck in the third and final year (134/5 CE) of the Bar Kokhba war. The types of the
Temple and the lulav and etrog are continued, but the coins are no longer dated “year 1” or “year 2 of the redemption of Israel,” and
instead the slogan “for the freedom of Jerusalem” is used on the reverse. The name of the holy city of Jerusalem no longer appears
around the Temple (perhaps suggesting it was now out of reach) and is replaced by Bar Kokhba’s first name
Simon
. The messianic
vision was being shattered, and the coins convey this message in their own cryptic way.