Featured The Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136 AD)

I have been looking at Bar Kokhba weights recently – so will post some rather tantalising ideas - in case anyone has any reaction

Here are a couple of free-to-access relevant papers:

Official Herod Weight: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27925217?seq=1

Bar Kokhba weight: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926171?seq=1

Individual old weights themselves are too variable to offer a lot of confidence – but in the case of this series running through from Herod to Bar Kokhba we seem to have corroboration from Josephus that they were probably aiming at 15 Roman ounces (or 30 Roman ounces in his particular case) thus theoretically a mina of c. 408g/816g. That is quite an interesting weight – as it is a useful conversion to both Roman (15 ounces) and Attic (96 coining drachms at 4.25g) standards. Given Jewish history – it is easy enough to see how such a cross cultural conversion might be useful in Judea at that time.

The oddity is that we see this matter replicated long after all over medieval Europe too. Charlemagne’s coining pound was c. 408g – dividing to 240 pennies, (which at 1.7g was half of Nero’s denarius: 15 oz = 120 denarii). But we find the same c. 408g pound at Stockholm and Moscow, but dividing into 96 “Viking mithcals” of 4.25g. But of course 4.25g is prior to that the weight of the Islamic dinar. For many years I thought this European conversion matter was a kind of happy coincidence – just a way for Christians and Moslems to carry out trade.

Only recently I noticed two things

1) as mentioned at the start – this medieval European conversion set up seem to exactly replicate what was going on 500 years earlier in Judea

2) several very early Islamic texts mention a Jew called Samayr/Samair (Samir) who it was claimed devised the metrological system adopted by ‘Abd al-Malik.

Now around 698 when the new Islamic weight standards were devised. Abd al-Malik was busy building the world’s oldest Great Mosque – in Jerusalem. And he was planning an assault on Constantinople. So its reasonable to think he might have been teaming up with other people who might have had a long standing grievance about Roman rule. Surely it is at least thought provoking to consider that when he fixed his dinar at 4.25g he was specifically reviving a standard from the anti-Roman Bar Kokhba revolt. A standard preserved in Jewish traditions - still understood by such as Samayr.

Note that the launch of the Islamic Dinar was only the second major revaluation of the gold standard in 500 years. In 309 Constantine had melted pagan aurei, (c. 5.45g) to make his lighter Christian solidus (c. 4.54g). Then in 698 ‘Abd al-Malik melted Christian solidi to make his lighter Islamic dinar (4.25g). Religion and finance running hand in hand……..

Rob T

 

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Hadrian Sestertius - Victory over Bar Kochba revolt
136 AD
Rome mint

Obverse: HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, laureate head right

Reverse: S-C, Pax-Nemesis advancing right, holding out fold of dress in apotropaic gesture & holding olive branch

References: RIC II 779; Sear II 3646

 

Posted in a previous thread but I'll re-post it here for completeness:



HADRIAN 117 - 138 A.D.
AV Aureus (7.27 g., 19.12mm) Rome ca. 136 A.D. RIC II.3 2234
HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P Bare-headed bust r., slight drapery. Rev. VICTORI A AVG Victory, naked to waist, stg. l.,holding eagle with wreath in beak, palm frond in l. hand. Bar Kochba Victory issue.

 

No coins to share, but I just wanted to let you know I enjoyed reading your article very much! Thanks for sharing!

 

Great overview article and some very nice coins on this thread. I am a little obsessed with Bar Kokhba coins but here are two of my favorite examples.
Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Sela (14.16 g), 132-135 CE. Year 2 (133/4 CE). 'Simon' (Paleo-Hebrew), tetrastyle façade of the
Temple of Jerusalem; show bread table or Ark of the Covenant in chest form with semicircular lid and short legs, seen from a narrow
side; above façade, star. Rev. 'Year two of the freedom of Israel' (Paleo-Hebrew), lulav with etrog at left. (Mildenberg 29 (O6/R20);
TJC 233; Hendin 1388)


Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Zuz (3.35 g), 132-135 CE. Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5 CE). 'Simna' (Paleo-Hebrew)
within wreath of thin branches wrapped around eight almonds, with a me-dallion at top and tendrils at bottom. Rev. 'For the
freedom of Jerusalem' (Paleo-Hebrew), two up-right trumpets with dot between. (Mildenberg 68 (O14/R40); TJC 276a; Hendin 1421)

 

The reverse of your Sela is incredible - congrats!

 

Thank you! It’s one of those acquisitions I will never look back on!

 

That is a really great coin I.O.M.