Another new addition this week is a Judaean AE Prutah issued by Procurator Pontius Pilate infamous for his role in the crucifixion of Christ. There are two types of these small coins covering three different years. This is the earlier type issued only in year 16 of Tiberius (late 29 and early 30 AD). While there is no certainty of the date of the crucifixion, Wikipedia gives 7 April, 30 AD, as one of the most popular dates among scholars. This, then would be the coin from that date. The second type of coin attributed to Pilate (which I do not have) is issued in LIZ and LIH (years 17 and 18). Both sell for a premium over the common Widow's Mite types because of the connection to Pilate. These coins tend to be crudely struck on small flans resulting in partial legends. Even with the wear, I consider this example to be above average but far from the best available. To me, it is nice to have the date on flan so the right end of the obverse legend is good to have. The obverse reads Tiberius Caesar LIS but this one has lost all of the name Tiberius (the price of keeping the date). The reverse reads Julia Caesar in honor of Tiberius' mother but the last half of Caesar is off flan. The obverse is a libation ladle or simpulum while the reverse shows three barley heads. There may be some significance or intended offence in the fact that the barley heads droop as opposed to another type where all three were upright issued under Agrippa I. This would require more study on my part before I can claim to understand the type.
interesting write up indeed....why does he have droopy barely? well, that made i lightbulb go on, i just put something together i probably should have before now...i'm kind of a slow student.. well, one thing i figures out, one thing i'm still hazy on, here's what i figure out. so the date LIS on DS's coin... the IS is 16 in greek? I=10, S=6 and LIZ is 17 I=10, z=7...so does the L just means "year"? so stevex's prutah and says L on one side of barley, S on the other...his is a "year 6". on mine i can barely make out an S on the right sight also, so i would assume also a year 6. but year six of what? herods rule (vs. pilates which references tiberius)? so looking at wikipedia that would have started in 37 ad, so year 6 would be...42-43ish ad?
Yes, L means year. I don't know why because when they spell it out on Alexandrian and Caesarean coins they use ETOYC. Herod coins are dated to his reign so 42-43 is right. Herod was a king and entitled to using his dates. Pilate was a civil servant and used the emperor's dates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals This will help if anyone is not comfortable with Greek numerals.
