Porcius Festus under Nero

I'm most certainly the "new guy" when it comes to ancients and have been exploring ancient coins in a rather unfocused buy what I like type fashion and I've been enjoying myself immensely, but I would like to find a specific area in which to put a little focus.

Back early January in the BECKER thread by @Ken Dorney I picked up a cheap copy of the 3rd Edition of David Hendin's Guide to Biblical Coins and have since been enjoying perusing the volume and learning a bit more about this specialized subject area.

And then there are a couple coin talk members here I converse with on a semi-regular basis and we are fast becoming friends but one in particular surprised me at the end of January when I received a nice Whitman Publishing copy of a Handbook of Ancient Greek & Roman Coins. The Whitman book has been very helpful and actually reprints and combines two works by Zander Klawans: Reading and Dating Roman Imperial Coins & An Outline of Ancient Greek Coins. I highly recommend both books to anyone interested in learning about Roman or Greek Coinage. Tucked within the pages were a few coins too:


My friend and I have in the past discussed my lack of focus and I've seen some of his Biblical collection by way of virtual portal and was pretty impressed. So you can imagine what surprise it was to have received the coins above and I really felt the need to offer a monetary compensation but his most gracious reply was "The only compensation I want is for you to enjoy the coins and book".

The recent thread by Erin aka @Johndakerftw reminded me that I should say thank you in public not only to my friend, but to all of you as well, since I am gifted coins and numismatic knowledge everyday by each of you through the sharing of your collections. Thank you.

I'm still uncertain what area(s) of ancient numismatics I like best but this branch of ancient coinage is particularly interesting to me. I've been to Israel twice and could go a thousand times yet still it would never be enough. The land, the food, and the people were always welcoming wherever we went and my only regret is that I wasn't collecting back then.



So my newest addition joins the gift from above:

Porcius Festus, procurator of Judea under Nero, 59-62 AD, bronze prutah of 15.1 mm, 1.51 grams.
Obverse: NEP WNO C (Nero) in a wreath.
Reverse: Palm branch (Year 5 of Nero).
Reference: Hendin 1351.



After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”

 

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What a nice gesture!! Welcome to the world of ancient numismatics. Nice new addition.

Here's mine:

 

Awesome coin with an interesting history.

 

Very cool!

 

Enjoying the journey is what it's all about!

Nice assortment of Judaean prutot, dadams! Judaean coins are fun to collect.

Check out this great reference site: http://www.menorahcoinproject.org

 

That’s the nicest Porcius Festus era prutot I think I’ve seen.

 

Hi dadams—Here are a few of my Porcius Festus era coins. Some from my slab happy days. I have a big bag of miscellaneous Judaean prutot that I purchased as a bulk lot and I have many PFs in that group. The boxed set includes an Antonius Felix era prutah also. The folks who put these boxed sets together are great and I'll be glad to send you a link to their site in a PM if you're ever interested. They make great gifts for non collectors. A lot of companies are selling these sets but the people who actually assemble them are definitely the ones to talk to.

 

I couldn't say it any better.

Good luck on a specific 'focus'....The best I can do is limit the field to ancients

 

What a nice gesture. I wonder how many people can be drawn into this hobby by such generosity. Many of us probably have a few coins sitting around that we wouldn't miss but that might really spark someone's imagination or interest. Deacon Ray is a good model of someone who gives away coins. Here's my Porcius Festus coin, purchased quite reasonably from Zurqieh on VCoins. This seller has a checkered history, but I have had generally positive transactions with him.

RULER: Porcius Festus, procurator of Judea under Nero
REIGNED: ca. 58-62 A.D. (likely retired by 60 A.D.)
TYPE: AE bronze prutah
SIZE: 15 mm.
WEIGHT: 2.04 g.
DIE AXIS: 0°
OBVERSE: Greek letters NEP WNO C (Nero) in wreath tied at the bottom with an X.
REVERSE: Greek letters KAICAPOC (Caesar) and date (not visible); palm branch.
EX: Zurqieh Co. LLC ; Hussam Zurqieh, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. VCOINS
ACQ. DATE: 2/6/14
NOTES: “In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul had his final hearing before Festus. In Acts 25:12, Festus sought to induce Paul to go to Jerusalem for trial; Paul appealed to the Emperor. The appeal resulted in Paul being deported to Rome. Acts 25-26.”

 

awesome gift and cool new coin!

i'm terribly under judeaned, as i'm focusing on roman coins this year...i'll try and nail a couple more of these before 2017 runs out.

 

You have a great start to your collection. And it was thoughtful of you to thank your benefactor - we had a lot of kind and generous members in CT ancients. It's a great group to belong to!

 

Hi Gavin,

That's a nice coin! Thank you for posting it!

I order from Hussam Zurquieh occasionally. I've always been treated well and received good merchandise. He's also very assessable in that he answers my emails quickly. A couple of years ago when I was having all of my coins slabbed I never had any issues with tooling or smoothing of the Zurqieh coins that I submitted. If there had been, I'm sure that Mr. Vagi would have spotted the issue and alerted me.

Thank you for the kind comments. I was saved from self destruction and given new life nine years ago. I've received many gifts from God and from God working through people who are in my life. I believe that many of those people are members of this forum. I'll never be able to repay or pay forward a fraction of what I've received. But it's fun to try!

 

Thank you very much! I bought it from William Rosenblum, who specializes in coins of the Holy Land.

Wow! I didn't know about this! It's awesome! I'll have to fully attribute a bunch of prutot I have!

 

Nice pieces folks!

I really do not collect these, but do have a couple that I can share:


Judaea Alexander Janneaeus 103-76 BC AE Prutah Wheel Widows Mite


Pontius Pilate (AD 26-36), Procurator of Judaea under Tiberius (AD 14-37)
Æ Prutah, 2g, 15mm, 12h; Jerusalem mint, AD 30.
Obv.: TIBEPIOY KAICAPOC (of Tiberius Caesar); Lituus.
Rev.: Date in wreath LIZ (year 17).
Reference: Cf. Ya'akov Meshorer, A Treasury of Jewish Coins (New York 2001), pl. 74, no. 333b


Judaea Pontius Pilate - Prutah IOYLIA KAICAPOC daughter of Caesar Augustus

 

Excuse me, Roman Collector! I replied to you and meant to send it to Alegandron. Anyway, thanks for your comments and thoughts! Yes, Rosenblum has some high end pieces!

 

Nice Pontius Pilate era coins! The second one with the simpulum is very nice!

Also Al

Do you know how to turn off the annoying auto-correct feature on the keyboard? I type in words and the computer changes them on me. It fights with me. I have to trick it into leaving the words the way I typed them. It's driving me nuts! (Actually it's too late for that. I've been nuts for years!)

 

Thank you!

Go to settings... auto-correct. I turn that off and any siri or anything like that. When I make spelling mistakes, they are mine.

 

Thank you, Sir!

 

Great community here guys and gals! I love the fact that members here share parts of their collections with each other. It makes the coins much more personal, in my mind.

 

I agree with @Jwt708 wholeheartedly. This is a great place! Thanks for all the comments and coin pics- seeing other great pieces makes me want to collect them even more. For starters my list includes a coin from each of the procurators that minted coins, a Bar Kokhba coin and one from the Jewish wars, but I'm sure I'll still be "snacking" on a multitude of ancients in between so who knows what I might post next!!