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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Arturo, post: 2163045, member: 27471&quot;]Coins of the Bar Kokhba War</p><p><br /></p><p>The destruction of the Temple and sacking of Jerusalem in 70 CE did not completely annihilate Jewish resistance in Judaea.&nbsp; In 132 a rebellion broke out under the leadership of Simon Bar Kokhba.&nbsp; Dubbed the messiah by the highly regarded Rabbi Akiva, the authoritarian Bar Kokhba declared himself prince of the Jewish kingdom.&nbsp; The coinage made by the rebels in Bar Kokhba&#039;s name are a fascinating series.&nbsp; They were made during the exegeses of war, by a determined and defiant population with little resources.&nbsp; Not having access to basic means of making flans, the coins were over struck on the coins at hand, namely the Roman issues.&nbsp; The coins were struck in three sizes of bronze, and two sizes of silver.,&nbsp; Effacing the hated Roman symbols, the rebel coins were struck with dies bearing Bar Kokhba&#039;s name on the obverse.&nbsp; The name is sometimes spelled with four Hebrew letters and sometimes with three.&nbsp; When spelled with three the letters read &#039;Shema” which is also the name of the central dogma of the Jewish faith, “”Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”&nbsp; The words on both the obverse and the reverse are written in paleo-Hebrew the archaic language of much earlier, more glorious times.&nbsp; It is thought that Bar Kokhba insisted on the use of paleo-Hebrews to recall those days.&nbsp; On the reverse the letters spell out, variously, “For the redemption of Jerusalem,” “For the freedom of Zion” and other similar expressions.&nbsp; Coins struck during the first year of the rebellion are so marked, as are the coins of the second year.&nbsp; Coins which are undated are assumed to be from the third year, in which Bar Kokhba&#039;s men were crushed in a bloody last stand in Bethar.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>On the reverse, images reminiscent of the Temple which had been destroyed sixty years earlier are portrayed.&nbsp; The symbols include a schematic front view of the Temple, a narrow harp, a wide harp, a jug for performing the water ritual, a bunch of grapes, two trumpets, and lulav and etrog.&nbsp; The large silver coins were struck on the Roman tetradrachms. A tetradrachn thus struck was called a sela&nbsp; by the Judaeans.&nbsp; The smaller silver coins were struck on denarii, and called zuzim, plural for zuz.&nbsp; One sela was worth four zuzim.&nbsp; The term zuz is applied to the Bar Kokhba coins exclusively by some, but it is applied generally to Roman denarii in the Talmud.&nbsp; The word zuz in Hebrew means “it moved.”&nbsp; There are many interesting varieties of the obverse of the coins of silver and bronze.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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