A Half a Century of Studying Biblical Coins
November 2021 | Vol. 9.11
By David Hendin
Many people are interested in ancient coins, but not too many stay with it for over half a century! After nearly 50 years of writing and revising, and on the eve of publication of my book Guide to Biblical Coins 6th Edition, I can assure readers that the process of creation and revision of a book like this is not a straightforward process. This is true even though texts on the topic have existed for nearly 200 years.
Guide to Biblical Coins 6th Edition.
Image from Guide to Biblical Coins showing an actual pomegranate bud superimposed on the same motif, illustrating the design of a silver shekel of the Jewish War (66-70 CE). Credit: Guide to Biblical Coins 6th Edition.
Take for example the problem of dating coins; despite the fact that some coins actually come with dates, it is not always clear what those dates refer to. For example, in his 1881 Coins of the Jews, numismatist Frederick Madden attributed the silver coins inscribed “shekel of Israel,” “half a shekel,” and the bronze shekel fractions dated year four to Simon Thassi (died 135 BCE) of the Hasmonean dynasty. Madden also attributed coins with the names Eleazar and Simon to the first year of the Jewish War against Rome (66-70 CE). Today Eleazar and Simon are known to be Bar Kokhba coins, issued by the Judean state during its final revolt against Rome from 132-135 CE.
The issue of dating gets predictably more difficult with earlier coinage. My friend and teacher, the late Ya’akov Meshorer (Chief Curator of Archaeology at the Israel Museum) correctly dated all of the Jewish War and Bar Kokhba Revolt coins in his 1967 Jewish Coins of the Second Temple Period. But Meshorer shook up the establishment by theorizing that Alexander Jannaeus (who reigned from 104-76 BCE) struck the first Hasmonean coins.
Coin of Alexander Jannaeus (103 to 76 BCE). Obverse: Seleucid anchor and Greek Legend: BASILEOS ALEXANDROU “King Alexander”. Reverse: Eight-spoke wheel or starburst within diadem. Hebrew legend inside the spokes: “Yehonatan Hamelech”(Yehonatan the King). Photo by PHG / wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
He further posited that Jannaeus issues were followed by coins struck by subsequent Hasmonean kings, Hyrcanus II, Aristobulus II, and Mattatayah Antigonus (the last king of the dynasty, executed by the Romans in 37 BCE after being captured and handed over by Herod, who had already been proclaimed “King” by the Romans).
But Meshorer’s theory was quickly countered by Arie Kindler (of the Haaretz Museum and Tel Aviv University) who wrote in Coins of the Land of Israel in 1974 that the Hasmoneans struck coins in this order: Hyrcanus I, Aristobulus I, Jannaeus, Hyrcanus II, and Mattathias Antigonus. The problem is that coins with the name Yehochanan (or John) could refer to Hyrcanus I (135-104 BCE) or to his grandson Hyrcanus II who reigned some 40 years later. This meant uncertainty regarding sites or strata dated by such coins.
In 1976 this writer entered the fray with the first edition of Guide to Ancient Jewish Coins. Like Kindler, I also highlighted the find of a coin struck by the Syrian king Antiochus VII in Jerusalem bearing both a date and a Judean symbol as a chronological anchor. But I still followed Meshorer’s then current theory of Hasmonean coin chronology (only until my 3rd edition).
The revisions continue. Guide to Ancient Jewish Coins was retitled Guide to Biblical Coins for subsequent editions 2nd (1987), 3rd (1996), 4th (2001), and 5th (2010). This fall the 6th edition will be published by the American Numismatic Society (ANS). I am happy to have gifted all rights and revenues for this book to the ANS.
I am often asked “why” or “when” I do a “new” edition. A father of my boyhood friends was a genetics professor who was working furiously on a new edition of his textbook when I arrived in New York in 1969. Innocently, I asked him the difference between editions. He did not hesitate: “They are pretty much the same, except better.” Coins continue to be found, and to confound.
Why have I re-done it six times and what did I do differently this time? What have I learned in the process and how do I feel about writing a book for both scholars and collectors, especially given the current climate regarding collecting?
Over the decades I have updated my book to include the most recent research, including from over 75 papers I have written or co-written with colleagues. My archaeological fieldwork at Sepphoris with Duke University and Hebrew University dramatically enhanced knowledge, as have my site visits to hundreds of locations in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon with friends and colleagues.
David Hendin with an ancient depiction of Cereberus at the Sidonian Cave in Marisha, Israel. Credit: R. Hendin.
Hendin excavating at Sepphoris in 2011.
During the decades I have worked on this book, the entire field of Samarian numismatics sprang forth. Almost all of the Samarian coins surfaced as a few hoards presented in the market and were rounded up and published by Meshorer and Shraga Qedar, a professional numismatist. When I entered the field in 1967 Samarian coins were not known. By Samarian Coinage (1999), their second book on the topic, Meshorer and Qedar published 224 different types of Samarian Coins and more types have been subsequently discovered.
Samarian Silver coin. Head of bearded satrap left, wearing tiara. Persian king standing left, fighting horned creature. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Similarly, the number of Yehud coin types, from the Persian and early Hellenistic period and bearing the name YHD in Aramaic, has increased from three to more than 30 over the decades. Again, most (perhaps all) of the new types first appeared in the markets. Dating of the Jewish War and Bar Kokhba Revolt coins has also been supported and reconfirmed by well-documented archaeological contexts. Ideas about the dating and mint locations for the coins of Agrippa II are subjects of ongoing study.
YHD coin. Photo by R. Hendin.
In addition to adding new types, removing incorrectly attributed coins, and refining chronology (seriation) of the coins, I have also added new topics of interest. For example, in the 4th edition I added a section covering and listing coins countermarked by the Roman legions stationed in the ancient Holy Land. In the 5th edition I added text and an extensive catalog of the Judaea Capta coins, issued by the Emperor Vespasian to celebrate his son Titus’ destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
Unlike most archaeological objects of daily use, coins were literally mass produced in order to travel. Coins have been collected, saved, lost, and found for thousands of years. Millions of ancient coins are legally in collections or in trade worldwide. Unlike temples, frescoes, and tombstones, among other ancient objects, coins were made to circulate. They were intended to cross borders between friend and foe alike and facilitate international trade.
A half a century ago many scholars still viewed Judean coinage as a group unto itself, closely adhering to Jewish law with regard to legends and imagery. But new analyses of coin styles and technologies have shown this to be far from the case. The influence of the Hellenistic minting tradition has been increasingly recognized. Irregular bronze and silver coinage of Judaea – crude versions of already crudely made coins – were once ignored and attributed to careless manufacturing. Metallurgical and die studies, however, have shown it is likely that these irregular coins were issued sporadically and at different locations to fill market needs, and were not considered “forgeries” when they were made and used. A better understanding of economics has resulted.
Metallurgy studies have helped refine the seriation for the coins of Herod I, placing them into a large pattern of Judean bronze coins. Over time the bronze source moved from Cypriot sources to the Timna mines, north of Eilat. Arsenic is an incidental trace element in copper, but there is more arsenic in copper from Cyprus than in copper from Timna. As metal sources for Judean coins changed from Cyprus to Timna over during the Second Temple Period, we observed steadily reduced amounts of arsenic over time in those coins. Trade and technology have thus come into better focus.
Numismatics is an important ancillary field to archaeology, anthropology, history, mathematics, and economics. Yet few universities worldwide offer numismatic tracks. Top academic numismatists may be professors, but they are often diplomats, attorneys, doctors, businessmen, writers, clergymen, or even coin dealers. As noted by Frank L. Holt in his engaging When Money Talks: A History of Coins and Numismatics, the scholarly societies that publish the journals “still welcome collectors and dealers as members and officers. Their research journals still accept papers written by well-informed non-academics, and their own cabinets still rely heavily on bequests from generous collectors and dealers.”
But it is my clear position that every international law should be followed. (I also urge responsible citizens of all source countries to take a closer, clear-eyed look at England’s Portable Antiquities Scheme.) Over my six-plus decades in numismatics I have collaborated with collectors, dealers, scholars, law enforcement officers, and even a few who some would have called scoundrels. Students of numismatics must remain sensitive to the changing parameters of how these fields have actually operated over the past few hundred years.
I take my work as a numismatic historian and guardian of an archive information seriously, and do my best to bring a two-thousand-year tradition of collecting and studying Judean coins up to date with current ideas as well as stories about some of the key players over the past 50 years. The newest edition has more reference citations, more endnotes and comments, many more photos and illustrations, and better indices and a concordance. But in addition to numismatics and archaeology, my career has been as a journalist, publisher, and literary agent. In the latest edition I talk about my friendship with Charles M. Schulz, creator of PEANUTS and how his interest in my numismatic and archaeology work in Israel turned into an adventure for Snoopy’s twin brother Spike.
Charles M. Schulz with David Hendin.
How to cite this article:
Hendin, D. 2021. “A Half a Century of Studying Biblical Coins.” The Ancient Near East Today 9.11. Accessed at: https://anetoday.org/studying-biblical-coins/.
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