Prof. Ya‘akov Meshorer (1935–2004)

Prof. Ya‘akov Meshorer, one of the foremost specialists of ancient Jewish

coinages and longtime member of the Israel Numismatic Society, passed away on

June 23, 2004. He is survived by a brother Asher, wife Adaya, three children and

three grandchildren.

   Ya‘akov Meshorer’s love of coins and history was deeply embedded in him from

the start. It is well know that as boys, Ya‘akov and his twin brother Asher used to

find ancient coins as they wandered around the city, which was rapidly begin

built up. As Ya‘akov would say, “the most exciting part was realizing that our

forefathers had used the same language and lived in the very same place where

we spent our free time.” The twins donated their first coin finds to the Israel

Department of Antiquities at the age of 14 (1949). Among the many coins he

found in Jerusalem was an Archaic Athenian tetradrachm – one of the earliest

coins ever recorded as a surface find in Israel. This coin was published as his first

article.

   Meshorer was born in 1935. He joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1954. After

completing his army service in 1956, he became a member of Kibbutz Hazerim.

There he married Adaya Weiss in 1956. During the five years they lived there, he

devoted his spare time to his “hobby” – archaeology – and established a museum

on the kibbutz. Meshorer left Hazerim in 1960 and moved to Jerusalem, where

he enrolled as a student at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying there

from 1960 to 1966. He received his bachelor’s degree in Archaeology and Jewish

History and his master’s degree in Classical Archaeology. He received his Ph.D.

in Numismatics in 1971 from the Hebrew University. As a reservist he served in

the Jerusalem Reconnaissance Company and was lightly wounded in the Six Day

War; he later served as an officer in the UN liaison unit.

   Meshorer established the Department of Numismatics at The Israel Museum,

Jerusalem, in 1969 and stood at its helm until 1993. The department, built up

from individual coins, collections, and funds donated to the Museum through

Meshorer’s tireless efforts, now holds one of the most important collections of

ancient Jewish coins in the world, as well as an impressive collection of Islamic

gold coins and a significant group of Roman city coins of Palestine. Meshorer

was particularly dedicated to the task of locating important Jewish coins and

acquiring them for the collection, and he successfully assembled the best

specimens of this group. Over the years, he also mounted numerous numismatic

exhibitions, affording the Israeli public and visitors to Israel the opportunity to

view important coins and learn about their rich past. In addition to his role as

Curator of Numismatics, Meshorer was Chief Curator of the Archaeology Wing

of the Israel Museum from 1975 to 1982 and from 1990 to 1996. He retired from

the Israel Museum in 2000.

   Ya‘akov Meshorer contributed greatly to the development of the field of

numismatics as an important part of the archaeological discipline and helped

promote the study of ancient coins as an official academic field in Israel. He was

a lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,

and was appointed Professor of Numismatics in 1983. Meshorer had the

foresight to delegate responsibilities to students in a manner that enabled them

to develop professionally, thus ensuring the next generation of numismatists. He

was an enthusiastic and popular lecturer, who knew how to get everyone –

colleagues, scholars, and laymen – as enthusiastic about numismatics as he was.

Meshorer’s passion for coins and boundless intellectual curiosity are notable in

his many publications (19 books and more than 100 articles).

   His publications on Jewish coins struck in ancient Palestine, and his grasp of the

material and interpretation of the subjects have become fundamental in the field.

His work Ancient Jewish Coinage (1982) and the updated edition A Treasury of

Jewish Coins (2001) include the entire group of coins struck by Jewish leaders

over a period of five hundred years. The books contain a detailed discussion of

the motifs appearing on the coins, some of which had never been published

before. His research opened up new areas for scholars in the field of Jewish

studies and has contributed significantly to the field of Jewish art. Regarded as

basic textbooks, his publications are not only used to date archaeological finds

but also to understand the historical, economic, and political circumstances

which lead to the minting of Jewish coins.

   Meshorer’s work on the Nabatean coins and his pioneering study of Samarian

coinage earned him international acclaim. His doctoral thesis on the Nabatean

coins was published as a book in 1975 and is still considered the principal

publication in this field. In 1982, it was he who “dared” to propose (in the

addendum of Ancient Jewish Coinage I) the existence of Samarian coinage. Until

then, scholars had been skeptical about this idea, since only four coins had been

published until that time. However, nine years later in The Coinage of Samaria in

the Fourth Century BCE (written in collaboration with Shraga Qedar), 106

Samarian types were published, and since then, this coinage has become an

extremely popular topic of study. In 1999 he published another book on this

topic, entitled Samarian Coinage , which includes a total of 224 different cointypes.

These two publications are among the most important breakthroughs in

numismatic research of the last few decades.

   Meshorer’s interests were not confined to the distant past. His catalogue Sixty

Economic Documents of Eretz Israel, 1870–1944 describes banknotes, payment

orders, and other elaborately decorated financial papers – highlights of the

Sidney Olson Collection, which was donated to the Department of Numismatics

at the Israel Museum in 1992. The book addresses historical, economic, and

artistic aspects of Jewish life in Palestine from the late nineteenth century until

the founding of the State of Israel.

   Meshorer was a member of the Archaeological Council of the Israel Antiquities

Authority and was invited to supervise the establishment of two museums

devoted to Biblical Archaeology: the museum of the Cleveland Jewish

Community Center in 1976; and The Hecht Museum, University of Haifa, in

1984. He was also a member of the directorate of the Israel Society for Medals

and Coins, serving on the committees that determined the design of the modern

Israeli coins. In this capacity, he was instrumental in the decision to base many of

the modern coins on ancient Jewish coinage, thus strengthening the affinity

between past and present in the State of Israel.

   Meshorer was invited to lecture and research at several major institutions,

including the American Numismatic Society, New York; Duke University, North

Carolina; the British Museum, London; the Jewish Theological Seminary, New

York; and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Among the many honors he

received, Meshorer was granted the Huntington Medal of the American

Numismatic Society in 2001, and he was elected honorary member of the

International Numismatic Council at the opening of the XIII International

Numismatic Congress of Madrid in 2003.

   In 2002 a prize was established in Meshorer’s name at the Israel Museum; its first

recipient was Dr. Andrew Burnett (2002) and the second Dr. Michel Amandry

(2006).

Meshorer’s opus ultimum, a three-volume catalogue of the Abraham Sofaer

Collection of Coins from the Holy Land, will be published by the American

Numismatic Society as part of the Ancient Coins in North American Collections

series.

   Yankele, as he was affectionately called, died at his home in Jerusalem on the

morning of Wednesday, June 23, 2004 after courageously battling a debilitating

illness for six long years. A dear friend and colleague, he will be missed by the

entire numismatic community in Israel and abroad, and by the many others who

cherished him greatly.

Haim Gitler

President of the Israel Numismatic Society

Curator of Numismatics, The Israel Museum Jerusalem

Send mail to dsyon@ins.org.il with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: August 06, 2008