This looks like your coin: Valerius Gratus - Prefect under Tiberius 15-26 AD. TIB KAI CAP within wreath /IOU-LIA and date, palm branch curved to right. Meshorer 327; Hendin 645; RPC I 4964. http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/judaea/valerius_gratus/t.html As to the value. I don't know.
Well, yes and no. I recommend this article. The coins commonly sold as "widow's mites" are these prutot (plural of prutah) of Alexander Jannaeus, from the early 1st century BC: Alexander Jannaeus (Yehonatan), 103-76 BC. Judean Æ Prutah, 2.25 g, 13.8 mm. Jerusalem mint. Obv: Hebrew inscription "Yehonatan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews" surrounded by wreath. Rev: Double cornucopiae, pomegranate between horns. Refs: Meshorer Group P; Hendin 1144. Alexander Jannaeus (Yehonatan), 103-76 BC. Judean Æ Prutah, 1.85 g, 13.7 mm. Jerusalem mint. Obv: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΥ around anchor. Rev: Star of eight rays between which Hebrew legend, "Yehonatan the King," all surrounded by diadem. Refs: Meshorer Group K; Sear 6087; Hendin 1150. However, there are similar coins by Judah Aristobolus (late 2nd century BC) and John Hyrcanus (mid-1st-century BC) that resemble the Alexander Jannaeus ones and are also sold as "widow's mites." These coins circulated for decades and may have been in circulation in Jesus' lifetime. Hence, they might have been the coins the widow placed in the collection box. Your coin was minted during Jesus' lifetime and would actually have a better claim to the designation "widow's mite," but would be cataloged by the name of the procurator and sold as a prutah of Valerius Gratus and not as a "widow's mite." It's only a matter of terminology in the coin trade. Mark 12:42 tells us nothing about the particular coin, though, reading: καὶ ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλεν λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης. "And one poor widow came and threw two leptons, which is a quadrans." The entire New Testament was written in Greek for Greek-speakers and typically uses Greek or Roman coin denominations. The lepton is a Greek denomination, not a Judean one, and it's an assumption (reasonable though it may be) that the author of Mark specifically meant a prutah when writing this verse.
