It's a fake...but what is it a fake of?

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Widows mite, though not a very convincing fake. Maybe something they gave away in church??

 

Its the Coin of Alexander Jannaeus (103 BC to 76 BC).
Obv: Seleucid anchor and Greek Legend: BASILEOS ALEXANDROU "King Alexander".
Rev: Eight-spoke wheel or star within diadem. Hebrew legend inside the spokes: "Yehonatan the King".



Looks like your replica is from http://www.holylandgiftsonline.com/product/71157

 

Thats the only explanation I've seen on these

 

Its just like Randy's picture. They are cheap fakes massed produced even today and sold in tourist areas. Thankfully, every single part of the coin is wrong, so they are easy to spot. Try telling that to someone who inherits one though.

They are sold in the tourist areas because widow's mites are famous due to their reference in the bible.

Btw, the reason they are called "mites" is that was the smallest copper coin that an Englishman in the time of King James may have heard of. It was a tiny dutch coin. The King James bible updated coins into "modern" words so people could relate to them. Hence, "mite" versus lepton, "tribute penny" versus denarius.