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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Nemo, post: 2145420, member: 58462&quot;]Stevex6, that is a fantastic countermark of SS! </p><p>Here is one of my favorite countermarked coins. The stamp isn&#039;t much to look at but the history behind it is great.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]410931[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>Valerius Gratus Prutah With Countermark of Cohors II Italica</b> </p><p><br /></p><p>JUDAEA, Roman Administration. Tiberius. AD 14-37. Æ Prutah (14mm, 1.72 g). Struck under Valerius Gratus, praefectus Iudaeae. Dated RY 5 (18/9 CE). </p><p>O: Unstruck [TIB/ KAI/CAP within wreath] Round countermark, palm branch flanked by the letters C and Π. </p><p>R: Upright palm branch; IOY ΛIA (Julia) and L Є (date, year 5 = 18/19 AD) across field.</p><p>- Meshorer 328 var.; Hendin 1339; RPC I 4965. </p><p><br /></p><p>These countermarks are always applied to the edges of the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>According to Lönnqvist, (New Vistas on the Countermarked Coins of the Roman Prefects of Judaea) the countermarked coins of Gratus were probably struck in Jerusalem, 36/7 CE, to endorse them as pay for the Roman soldiers. (Meshorer notes that perhaps the countermarked coins became tokens for special purposes, e.g., receipt of equipment or for services in a Roman army camp.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Lönnqvist also convincingly argues that the C and Π on the countermark stand for the word σπεîρα, referring to the cohort of soldiers that were apparently in Judea. </p><p><br /></p><p>He notes, “An interesting account in the New Testament has remained until now unverified, since the passage has not been supported by any other sources. The Act of the Apostles 10:1 mention an officer and a cohort, ‘Cornelius, a centurion of a cohort being called Italian…’.</p><p><br /></p><p>This unit, thus, was comprised of Roman citizens. The passage suggests that the unit was the cohors Italica civium Romanorum, probably a detachment of one of the imperial legions stationed nearby, perhaps in Syria… I may suggest that the Italian cohort recorded in Acts is, in fact, the cohors II Italica, which, consequently, had been the detachment which applied the countermarks on the coins of the Roman prefects of Judaea… This new evidence… lends strong support to the credibility of the New Testament on this point.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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