Guess how many lepta

I'm an ordained deacon of the church and one of my duties is to visit members of our congregation who are ill or injured in the hospital. I do my best to lift their spirits through prayer, encouragement, and humor. Whenever I visit a sick friend I bring a pocket full of Judaean lepta (Widow's Mites). I give them a couple of the them while telling them that these are 2000 year old coins from the Holy Land that very likely were handled by some of the first Christians. They may have been touched by some of the people we read about in the Bible. I can't say that these coins can heal the sick but I can certainly say that they have a very uplifting effect and most of the people who I have visited and given these coins have recovered from their injuries and illness.

Back to my original question. How many leptons are in the photo?

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Ummm, is it 33, or is it 0? (is it a trick and there are no leptons, because they're all prutahs?)

=> here is one of my examples ...

 

Nomenclature debate aside, I count 40 coins.

To be thoroughly pedantic, I think the plural of lepton is lepta and prutah prutot

 

40? ... ooops, maybe I had my damn beer-goggles on!!?

 

I could easily be wrong

 

38?

Good story and good on you for visiting the sick and infirm. It's a wonder how the mind reacts to things like an old coin which has absolutely no healing power except for in the mind. There is a commercial on here in Florida where dogs are vetted (pun intended) and taken to hospitals where the sick can pet and fuss over them. They say this helps improve the conditions of many patients. I see your coins doing the same.

 

How many of each kind of animal did Moses take onto the Ark?

 

39

 

39

 

Beautiful!

 

Thanks. I'm going edit it now. LOL

 

I have given a lot of answers here but now ask someone to provide me with one I have never understood. When we hear the story of the Widow's Mites, coin collectors seem prone to illustrating with the coins of Alexander Jannaeus as shown in this thread as opposed to any of a hundred other types of small Jewish coins. I suppose it is good that we rule out the types of the Procurators after Pontius Pilate but there is absolute.ly no evidence that would suggest the Widow might have had this type rather than other Hasmonean rulers, a Herodean king or the first five procurators ending with Pilate who was current at the time of the Ministry. For the purpose of bringing comfort to those in need, these are fine coins. I guess there are as many million Jannaeus' as any of the others so statistics would suggest that a ruler who died in 76 BC was probably responsible for many coins in circulation a century later but when I think of a Mite, I'd not be limiting to an anchor/wheel.

John Hyrcanus II


Antigonus Matthias


Herod Agrippa


Antonius Felix


Pontius Pilate

 

That's awesome that you bring the lepta with you when you visit people in the hospital and the effect it has, Deacon Ray. My dad is a semi-retired pastor and continues to visit people in the hospital. But, he doesn't bring sweet coins with him like you do.

I think I counted 39. You can never have enough.

Erin

 

Here is my other relevant enough coin-example ...



... despite my sweet desert patina, I like Doug's example a bit better (cool coin)

Ummm, I don't tend to chase these coin-types because:

a) I'm not very religious (and not very is an under-statement)
b) apparently there are a lot of religious coin-dudes that want these coins, big-time!! (so yah, they always seem waaaaaaay over-priced)

However, I do understand that they are very important, very cool, and that they mean "a lot" to a lot of coin-folks, so they are obviously very sought-after (which makes them awesome to coin collectors)

=> congrats Deacon, on having a whole bunch of 'em (33?) ... oh, and good job on being awesome

Cheers (ummm, or good job!)

 

I really wish the ancient Judaeans had put some effort into their coinage. I've owned any number of prutoh from time to time - finding well-struck, centered examples with reasonably clean surfaces is a challenge, in any period. For all their artistic ability in other genres, the ancient Jews were perfectly happy to crank out bazillions of crappy, utilitarian coins.

As Doug points out, the coin Jesus refers to could have been one of several different types, but the statistical likelihood favors the lepta of Alexander Jannaeus (I refer you again to bazillions of crappy, utilitarian coins). Btw, it's ok to call them lepta - some very distinguished numismatists do.

Actually, handing these coins out for their uplifting effect is probably the best idea I've heard for their use. They are indeed a tangible connection to Bible history. I have this one at the moment, which is better than most for its strong, mostly centered strike and clean surfaces. The makers of these coins were paid by volume, not quality, so examples like this one are a bit scarce...



Alexander Jannaeus, 103-76 BC
AE Lepton - Widow’s Mite, 2.7g, 16mm; Jerusalem mint.
Obv.: Hebrew script between Star rays (YHNTN HMLK) surrounded by royal diadem.
Rev.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΟΥ; anchor upside-down as if hanging on the side of a boat.
Reference: Meshorer Group K; Hendin 1150.

 

I only have these as I do not collect Biblical Era coinage. @John Anthony helped me with them to fill the proverbial slots as a side car to my collection. Otherwise, I would not collect them.


Judaea Pontius Pilate 26-36 CE - Prutah TIBEPIOY KAICAPOC Lituus

This one went to @ancientcoinguru to finish out her collection of the Pontius Pilate types.

My local Coin Shop loves ancient biblical history, and he also hands out mites in his presentations, as well as to home-bound or in-hospital people. Nice work.

 

i recently picked up one of these, have wanted one for years...



cool move deacon ray!

 

Beautiful coins! Thank you, Coin Talk friends! You're right that the coins in the story may not necessarily be Alexander Jannaeus lepta. It's definitely only an assumption. There are many other Judaean and non Judaean coins. The widow may have dropped a couple of Nabataen Areas IVs into the jar.

 

Actually, as a student of Nabataean coinage I can tell you that the chance of that is very slight. As a rule, Nabataean coinage did not circulate in Judaea or vice versa. An occasional coin may have been found out of place, like we occasionally find a Canadian cent, but the two cultures kept their economic systems quite separate.

 

Thank you to all who guessed and commented! There are 41 coins in the photo. I started out with 80 a year ago.