I wrote up the first purchases of these here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/true-cross-pilgrim-token.379403/ Well, since I waited this long, I wasn't going to let another one sneak past me. I picked this up in Obolos recently. No, I do not know why I buy multiples of items. JUDAEA. Jerusalem. Circa 7th century AD. (Clay, 15 mm, 1.22 g). H N B I (Jesus of Nazaret, King of the Judaeans) The True Cross of Jesus Christ. Rev. Plain. Mitchiner, Medieval Pilgrim & Secular Badges 1062-1064. About extremely fine. From an American Collection, acquired from David Hendin. "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." - Philippians 2:8 The relic that was first acknowledged as the cross that Jesus Christ died upon was found by Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great in AD 324. When Khusru II seized Jerusalem in 614 he confiscated the sacred “true cross” of the Church. After the cross was captured, it remained in Persia for 14 years until it was recovered by Heraclius who eventually brought it back to Jerusalem. Pieces of this cross were supposedly burned and mixed with clay to create circular uniface tokens - as this piece - that commemorated Christ’s victory on the cross.
The story is true, but was the cross in church the real one, and was the cross brought back from Ctsephon the right one? Those are the main "what if"s. The authenticity of these being from the period is fairly certain. I just thought they had cool stories. I collect stories more than items.
Very neat coin! I wonder if the survivability of an ancient clay coin is higher than the survivability of a metal coin, all else held equal. Clay is definitely more brittle, but maybe the fact that it's not as reactive as metal means that the survival rates would be better.
I would guess the opposite. One, its unfired so water will erode it completely. Two, metal detectorists cannot find them. Just my guess though.
In hand you easily feel it. Extremely light weight and porous. I am fearful of even drinking around it for fear of spilling water on it. Much of the writing on these describes them as unfired, since they didn't want to destroy the remnants of ash in the clay, (the entire point of them being made). Seriously, I have some antiquities from Israel. In hand these feel identical to some clay that was still attached to some dug pots I bought from there. If you saw one of these on the ground you would never recognize it as not being dirt. I guess they are found in stashed of possessions along with crosses, coins, etc. This one was sold by David Hendin himself.
