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Israel
Numismatic Research
Published by
the Israel Numismatic Society
Volume 4 2009
Contents
5 Editors’ Note
9 Evangeline Markou: Some
Cypriot Gold Coins?
For quite a long time the
attribution of gold coins, dated to the fourth century BCE and with the
types of a horse and a ram, was disputed between Cyprus and Cyrenaica because
numismatic
evidence could assign them to either region. The purpose of this paper is to
discuss these
coins and to examine the iconography, the weight standard and the coin legend.
Although the
legend is obscure and the weight of the coins can apply to both areas’ weight
standards, the
iconography does not support the attribution of the coins among the issues of
the kings of the
Cyprus and favors Cyrenaica.
21 Haim Gitler and Oren Tal: More Evidence on the Collective Mint of
Philistia
This article discusses several
matters relating to the likelihood that the coinage of Philistia
was struck in a collective mint. Links of Ashdodan and Gazan epigraphic dies
with
anepigraphic dies of Philistian coins are considered, as are the sociopolitical
implications
of these links against the coinage’s circulation, weight standard, axes,
metallurgical
analysis and the predominance use of the archaic eye motif in the coins. The
number
of coins struck from the same pair or several pairs of dies, and coins known in
single
specimens, are tabulated in an appendix.
39 Yigal Ronen: On the Chronology of the Yehud Falcon Coins
A falcon appears on the
reverse of seven distinct Yehud coins. The coins with the king’s head
obverse belong to the gera denominational system and coins with the lily and
incense bowl
belong to the obol system. The first type may therefore be Persian in date, and
the others
seem to be Macedonian-Hellenistic in date. A uniface (unstruck obverse) type may
also be
Persian, while the ear, shofar and cornucopia types — arguably Jewish symbols
like the lily
and incense bowl — may be later. The one cornucopia/falcon Yehud coin appears to
be an
unrecorded quarter obol.
47 Nicholas L. Wright: Two New Imitative Issues from the Fifth Syrian War
(202–198 BCE)
Two new barbarous imitations
of a Seleucid bronze issue struck by Antiochus III during
the fifth Syrian war (202–198 BCE) are presented. The phenomenon of bronze
imitations
in Coele Syria in this period is discussed.
51 Oliver D. Hoover: A New Hellenistic Lead Issue from the Southern Levant
Two new barbarous imitations
of a Seleucid bronze issue struck by Antiochus III during
the fifth Syrian war (202–198 BCE) are presented. The phenomenon of bronze
imitations
in Coele Syria in this period is discussed.
57 David Hendin: A Medallion of Agrippa II
A previously unpublished
medallion of Agrippa II, dated ‘Year 26’, seems to have been the
prototype of a smaller coin with confronted busts of Titus and Domitian dated
the following
year (TJC: No. 168). This medallion, with enhanced portraits and legends, was
apparently the
first coin struck in Agrippa II’s Flavian mint at Caesarea-Paneas. The portraits
on this coin,
as well as on other coins of Agrippa II struck at Caesarea-Paneas, can best be
explained by
applying the era of 49 CE to them.
63 Cecilia Meir: Tyrian Sheqels from the ‘Isfiya Hoard, Part One
The paper is first in a series
of publications that aim at producing a full report on the part of
the ‘Isfiya hoard kept in the Kadman Numismatic Pavilion, Eretz-Israel Museum.
The current
publication presents the first 107 Tyrian sheqels of regular style with readable
dates.
73 Gabriela Bijovsky: A Burning Testimony: Two Bronze Hoards from the
Time of the First Jewish Revolt
Two assemblages of burnt coins
dated to the end of the first Jewish revolt, were discovered
in the Temple Mount excavations of Benjamin Mazar in Jerusalem. The coins
provide a vivid
evidence of the destruction of the city by fire in 70 CE.
83 Gary M. Fine: Coins of Bar Kokhba: The Temple Water-Drawing Ceremony
and the Holiday of Sukkot
It is generally acknowledged
that many of the Bar Kokhba coins, and those of the fourth
year of the first Jewish revolt, depict types directly relating to the Sukkot
festival. It appears,
however, that all Bar Kokhba coin types may suggest this holiday. Further, as a
group, these
types may have more specifically referred to the Water-Drawing Ceremony,
celebrated at the
Jerusalem Temple on that holiday.
94 Alla Kushnir-Stein: Coins of Tiberias with Asclepius and Hygieia and the
Question of the City’s Colonial Status
The paper discusses a coin
type minted by Tiberias in the third century CE. The letters COL,
allegedly testifying to the status of colony, have been read on its reverse. It
has also been
suggested that the type appears under both Caracalla and Elagabalus. Recently
discovered
specimens demonstrate, however, that both the reading and suggestion are
erroneous. The
reverse legend does not contain COL and the series was struck under one emperor
only. The
date, ‘Year 200’, read on several specimens, has implications for the still
unsolved problem of
the exact year of the foundation of Tiberias.
109 Lionel Holland: An Unusual Lead Weight of 22 grammata
A lead weight of mass 25.7 g
with the denomination “22 grammata” scratched in Greek on
one face was found in Northern Israel. It is suggested that the weight may have
been part of a
doctor’s or apothecary’s equipment, and could have been used for compounding a
medicine,
which called for that particular weight of one ingredient. The historical and
metrological
arguments for such a hypothesis are discussed.
113 Wolfgang Schulze: The Byzantine ‘Eagle’ countermark – Re-attributed
from Egypt to Palestine
During the turbulent years of
the Arab conquest of Syria in the 30s of the seventh century CE,
a series of Byzantine countermarks was in use. One of them, the ‘eagle’
countermark, has been
attributed for a long time to Egypt and may now be re-attributed to Palestine on
the basis of
new evidence. This countermark may have been applied on old and worn Byzantine
coins in
order to revalue them during the siege of Caesarea (637–640 CE).
121 David J. Wasserstein: Islamic Coins and their Catalogues III: The Ikhshidids
Jere Bacharach’s book is a
first attempt to provide a corpus of all known coins of the Ikhshidids,
who ruled Egypt more or less independently of the ‘Abbasids of Baghdad between
c. 935 and
969 CE, when it was taken over by the Fatimids. The inscriptions on these coins,
struck at a
number of mints, are a valuable guide especially to the changes in the
relationship between
these rulers and their nominal overlords in Baghdad. The corpus is described
and, with the
addition of a table, used to demonstrate the thinness of our numismatic
knowledge of this
dynasty.
135 Robert Kool and Warren C. Schultz: The Copper Coins of the Mamlūk
Sultan al-Malik al-Mansūr Lājīn (r. AH 696–698/1297–1299 CE)
The typology of the copper
coinage of the Mamlūk sultan Lājīn is modified in the light of the
discovery of a new type and the rediscovery of a forgotten type.
Archaeologically derived
numismatic data is examined to raise questions about the origin of these coins
and their
circulation.
145 Ariel Berman: A Hoard from the First World War from the Area of Beer
Sheva
A considerable amount of gold
and billon (debased silver) coins, lost probably on October 31,
1917 during or just after the fighting on the Beer Sheva front, reflects a
random cross-section
of the various currencies kept at that moment, apparently by a Turkish officer.
159 Neryahu A. Shneydor: The Inscriptions on Modern Palestinian and Israeli
Currency
The paper deals with the
legends on coinage and banknotes of Palestine (1927–1947) and
Israel (1948–2009). Mandatory Palestinian currency was conservative but not
flawless. In the
first 15years of independence, Israeli currency was immature. One of the issues
treated here is
the comparative usage of the two official languages (Hebrew and Arabic) and the
ex-official
one, English. In the years that followed, the currency’s evolution was rather
smooth, although
spotted by some curious decisions on matters of wording, presentation of dates,
numerals and
transliterations.
173 REVIEW: C. Foss, Arab-Byzantine Coins. An Introduction, with a
catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks collection. Washington, D.C. 2008.
(Bruno Callegher)
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