I am trying to identify this coin and wondering if it has any valie. It is not mine, I am just trying to help someone out. It was given to the person by a local family near Petra, Jordan. Any help would be appreciated. I juiced the images to make out some more detail. Thank you!
Beat me to it. For these, the double cornucopia on the reverse is the most recognizable item if the obverse isn't the typical jugate head obverse. Read about Petra, its a fascinating place. These coins have hoards found fairly regularly of them. When hoards are not on the market they go up pretty well, just to get knocked back down in price when another hoard shows up. A large one hit the market 2 years ago and is still floating around. I bought around 130 of these coins in similar condition a year or two ago. I like them.
Sounds about right for retail value for one coin. Like I said, I bought quite a few, and got a good deal, so my costs into them aren't near that, but for a single coin retail value you are in the ballpark.
Thanks Chris. I knew you ancient collectors (collectors of ancient, not old collectors) would point me in the right direction. You guys made me look smart on this one!
Bronze Prutah? You guys said to ask questions so here are a couple- What material is it? What is its denomination?
A prutah is an ancient jewish coin denomination. It was valued at 1 prutah to a lepton, the smallest denomination made. These denominations were made from about 130 BC to around 50 ad, from Jewish kings, to Herod the great and sons, through Roman procurators. This is a very summary coverage of them, and the dates from memory so forgive me. They are most famous as denominations of Pontius Pilate coins, Herod the Great, and other biblical figures. The lepton, (half a prutah), we believe is the "widow's mite" from the bible. Chris P.S. Its material is bronze, just like the coin from Gbroke.
Thanks for the info. So do I understand that my guess was correct? Is gbroke's coin a Bronze Prutah (being ~1.5 cm) or would you call it something else?
I doubt if it was called a prutah. That denomination really only existed in Judea. Petra was close, but I doubt they shared this denomination. To be honest, we do not know the names of a lot of denominations names. We simply call a 1.5 cm bronze coin an AE15 many times. Even when we call something a follis, drachm, etc sometimes we are not so sure that is what the local people called it. We do know prutah and leptons were what the Judean coins were called, but I have never read for sure what Nabatean bronzes were called. Chris
