That tiny silver coin is on Nomos
Auction right now:
I agree with it to be a wine
flask made of animal skin, or water
flask, since it is
still in use till now in the small villages on the East, and they use the
flask to shake milk as well to make butter , I dont think that the
Hemidrachm was minted in
Judaea, due to the symbol The Lilly use under the
Seleucid rule, and it wasent allowed for the Jews to struck coins on silver with there own
symbols, however the
symbols indicate connection to
Judaea and Jerusalem for sure, so for it to be minted in
Cilicia by the
Jewish community is very strong argument .
it is very interesting
tessera Joe, and yours would be more reasonable to be
Judaean .
The silver coin was ID:
Judaea (or
Cilicia), Hellenistic Period. Jerusalem (?). c. 132-130.
Hemidrachm (Silver, 1.98 g 12). Lily; pearl
border.
Rev. Uncertain object, perhaps a wine
flask made of an animal skin, some sort of wind instrument with a mouth piece, or, possibly, a gourd used as a rattle in rituals;
border made of a
wreath of lily blossoms. Apparently unique and unpublished). An extraordinary coin of the greatest interest and mystery.
Good very fine. From the PGB
collection, apparently acquired in ancient Zephyrion, modern Mersin, in 1964.
This coin is almost inexplicable. The fact that it is
anepigraphic certainly does not
help; in some ways this is rather reminiscent of the kind of curious
Late Roman silver issues that appeared in the 4th and 5th centuries (those celebrating the House of
Constantine from the
mint of
Constantinople, for example). However, both stylistically and technically such a date is impossible. The place where this piece was purchased, a bustling modern
port city with a very long
history, could mean that the coin is of Cilician origin, but the fact that it is certainly Hellenistic in date and
anepigraphic goes against this, since coins were simply not made in this way in that
area at that time. Thus, we could postulate that this coin came from elsewhere and probably arrived in
Cilicia in ancient times. The lily is, however, often a specifically
Jewish symbol, and has a clear connection with Jerusalem. The lily
wreath on the
reverse reinforces this symbolism, though the mysterious object on the
reverse is as yet unstudied and unidentified save for the few possibilities mentioned above (though it must have some ritual significance). In fact, the best parallel for this coin
comes from the prutot that were issued in the name of Antiochos
VII by
John Hyrcanus I in the late 130s BCE. If that connection seems reasonable, the production of this coin might be connected with Temple usage, perhaps as an attempt to provide a completely
Jewish coin for donative purposes, free from any form of pagan symbolism. The fact that there were a considerable numbers of Jews living in
Cilicia in ancient times (at least by the 1st century BCE; among other places Zephyrion is mentioned in the Talmud), provides a number of possibilities. 1) this coin was minted in
Cilicia for ritual
Jewish use by the local community; 2) this coin was minted in
Judaea for ritual use and arrived in
Cilicia as a keepsake. In any case, what we have, in this small silver coin, is a relic of astounding historical importance.
