Judaean/Roman War Prutah

I'm fortunate to have friends in the Ancients Forum...
...and grateful to @Justin Lee for offering to me this excellent Hendin 661 for an extraordinarily reasonable monetary exchange. I thought at first that I had one already but no—mine was a Hendin 1360. This type is a bit rare and the grape leaf is more than worth the price.

Post your amphorae, your grapes or grape foliage, or anything else related or unrelated.

 

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Cool putrah and a lovely presentation as usual @Deacon Ray !

This is the grapeiest coin...



Greek Cyclades, Siphnos, 3rd century BC

O: Head of the youthful Apollo Karneios with ram's horn, grapes counterpunch. R: Poseidon,trident in his left hand holding , dolphin on the right, grapes lower left. SNG Cop. 785, 4.8 g, 19 mm.

 

I keep telling myself that someday I would love to have a side collection of Judaean coins. Your new one illustrates why. Wonderful coin!

 

There is a secret about this amazing coin type considering the circumstances at the time they were minted. In the Jewish tradition the Creator used the Hebrew letters to form the worlds out of and so they have other meanings besides being phonemes. They also are the numbers(time-sequence), they have special shapes(space) and they make words, they speak(soul-consciousness) they also have meanings. So here you may see the ancient archaic Hebrew letter "MEM" hover over the amphorah. It ends the word shtaim meaning 'two" of shenay shtaim- 'Year two" However the letter mem is also the name of the word for "WATER"=mayim. So you see the letter with a channel flowing from it down(into the lower realm of physical creation) and eternally emptying into the amphorah of life. These upper waters are also related to the "wine" of wisdom called yaeen. These are the upper heavenly waters of love that make up the last part of the Hebrew word for "heavens"= ShaMAYIM" found in the first verse of the Torah/Bible.

 

Great coin Deac! And Mike, that's one of the best examples I've ever seen!! Here's my example and as far as grapes, this coin isn't Jewish Thrace, Maroneia
Ae17, 6.1g 146-100BC
Obv: Head of young Dionysos right, wearing band across forehead and ivy wreath
Rev: Dionysos standing left grapes in right hand, two stalks of narthex (fennel) in left hand, chlamys on left arm
I bought this for only a few dollars from JA after it went unsold at auction.

 

Nice score with unblemished patina.

 

Mike Margolis, stunning coin with great explanation of symbolism. Ancient coins mean so much more when you know what you're looking at.

 

Thank you for your interesting post, Mike! You have an outstanding coin also.

 

I'm so happy to be able to have made the connection with you and this coin, @Deacon Ray !! It couldn't ask for a better home!! And has some great coin friends alongside it!

Wow, Mike! Such great deeper story behind this coin and the language! Thank you for sharing!!

 

Great Year 2 prutah @Deacon Ray

Hendin, as I understand, renumbered many coins over the course of multiple editions of his Guide to Biblical Coins and I think 661 is the same as 1360 — Hendin 1360 (5th Edition) Hendin 661 (3rd Edition)

I've got two of these:

 

Yes, I believe you're right, @dadams. The 661 is from an earlier classification system. I have some John Hyrcanus era coins where the same thing applies. The Hendin numbers are three digits instead of the four digit system used now.

Also, your coins are great!

 

Just to clarify, the coin I pictured above with the explanation is not in my own collection. That would be way too much for me to spend these days. I used it for the clear lettering as an example. The ones I have are below including a rare "irregular" type first photo Judaea, FIRST REVOLT, AE19MM PRUTAH. YEAR 2 = 67-8 AD. IRREGULAR TYPE! EB928 This one above is a "year three" of the revolt. I am not sure about the numbering of the divergent or irregular types however and the number EB928. Maybe @Deacon Ray knows more of that? I had an old edition of Hendin's 'Biblical Coinage" but I gave it as a gift along with a few coins including my best revolt prutah pictured below. Must get another Hendin book one soon I suppose. The leaf and amphorah of your coin are quite detailed Deacon Ray.

 

Awesome coins, as usual Deacon Ray and friends!

I got mine from Brian Bucklan. It’s pretty sweet.

I don’t have access to a pic of one right now, but I’ll try to get it after.

Good work, all!

Erin

 

Beauties for sure! Great patinas!

 

Mr. Lee. He's funny too. I liked his bowling pin joke

 

Haha thanks! Some jokes land better than others...

 

Here it is



I think I accidentally deleted the reverse. I need to take better pics anyway.

I'm thankful to Brian for offering this to me at a super awesome price!

Erin

 

Brian is awesome!

 

Here is my example. In Hendin's fourth edition it is 661.



17 mm. 2.56 grams.
First Revolt, year 2.

There is an "Ancient Coin Market List" e-mail list:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ACM-L/conversations/messages
where people can list ancient coins for sale, but not with images--you must link to images that are somewhere else. The CoinTalk sale forum
https://www.cointalk.com/forums/for-sale/
is much better designed, but the two methods reach some different people. The ACM-L has 1960 members, according to Yahoo, but is not very active. I post on it occasionally and on CT frequently. The ACM-L was more active a few years ago. In 2013 when this coin was offered on it by a private seller, I quickly bought it.

 

Very nice!