John Hyrcanus was the son of Simon the Maccabee and nephew of the folk hero Judah Maccabee, the hero of the Hanukkah story. Soon after Hyrcanus assumed power, the Seleukid kingdom marched on Jerusalem. Antiochus VII and Hyrcanus I negotiated a treaty that left Hyrcanus a vassal to the Syrian king. John Hyrcanus was the first Jewish ruler to issue coins in his own name. The Paleo-Hebrew inscription reads, from right to left, as follows: YHHW(HH)/NN (Yehohanan, error HH should be just H) H (the) KHN (Priest) / GDL (high) [W] (and) H (the) (HH)B/R (council) H (the) YHW/DM (Jews). See Reading Judean Coins in NumisWiki. |