Lol Steve! Yeah well, you know - I'm a deep scholar and all, and I had some extra paint lying around.
i'm digging this judean coins JA. you know, i have my prutah in my "western, but not roman" box currently and not my "roman coin" box. so i guess i lumped it in with the greeks. i should move it really shouldn't i?
The line is a bit blurry, but if a coin has Greek legends that refer directly to the Roman rulers, I would call it a Roman provincial. Earlier coins with Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions referring to Judaean rulers are simply Judaean in my mind, even when Rome considered Judaea a vassal kingdom. By the same token, Rome considered Nabataea a vassal kingdom, yet no Nabataean coinage ever references Rome or Roman rulers. Only after Nabataea was annexed by Trajan do we get the official Roman coinage of Provincia Arabia.
Here is the last of the four. The legends are easy to read on this one and need no painting. Judaea, Porcius Festus, procurator under Nero AE Prutah, 17mm, 2.9g, 12h; Jerusalem, AD 58/59. Obv.: Inscription within wreath, tied with an X: NEP/WNO/C. Rev.: KAIC-APOC, LE; Palm branch. Reference: Hendin 1351.
And here's a team picture in chronological order. I've learned quite a bit about these coins and their history. At this point, I'd like to add a few of the earlier prutoh with Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions - I enjoy learning new alphabets, and I found it interesting to compare the ancient Hebrew with Nabataean, both of which branched from Phoenician, sometimes in similar, sometimes in very different ways.