Israel Numismatic Research
Volume 18 2023
Contents

7 Dana Ashkenazi, Maayan Cohen, David Jeselsohn, Mati Johananoff, Haim Gitler and Oren Tal: A Study of a Late Fifth Century BCE Jewelry, Hacksilber and Coin Hoard from the Samaria Region

29 Christian Frevel: The Function of the Biblical ‘Holy Sheqel’: An Essay on Parallel Standards and Their Conversion after the Introduction of Coinage

55 Yoav Farhi, Dvir Raviv, Aharon Tavger and Boaz Gross: Numismatic Evidence for Instability in Judea under Alexander Yanai (?): A Hasmonean-Period Coin Hoard from Tel Bet Shemesh (East)

67 Linda T. Zollschan: A Neglected Identification of Bacchius Iudaeus

83 Alexander Kaplun and Yoav Farhi: The Foundation Myth of Straton’s Tower: New Numismatic Evidence on Coins of Caesarea Maritima

93 Alexander Kaplun and Yehuda Goldgur: A New Countermark on the Coins of Askalon

99 Jared J. Clark: The Coinage of Gadara under Tiberius: Reattributions and Corrections

107 Achim Lichtenberger: Tumultuous Times: Tyre under Emperor Elagabalus

123 Yoav Farhi, Yuval Gadot, Manfred Oeming and Oded Lipschits: A Late Roman Coin Hoard from Ramat Raḥel and Its Possible Implications on the Site’s History During the Byzantine Period

141 Haim Shaham, Zachi Devira and Gabriel Barkay: Two Noteworthy Byzantine Weights from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

153 Haim Shkolnik, Nikolaus Schindel, Michael Hollunder and Binyamin Har-Even: Umayyad Coins from Judaea and Samaria

187 David Woods: The Mutilated and Collared Cross: The Identity of the Object on the Reverse of the Standing Caliph Fulūs of ‘Abd al-Malik

207 David Woods: Bishop Elias (d. 700 CE) and the Standing Caliph Fulūs of Ḥarrān

217 Nikolaus Schindel: Four Notes on Crusader Copper Coinage from the Principality of Antioch

227 Edward E. Cohen: Mapping the Earliest Paths of Place-value Numbers Across West Asia, Part One: From the Late Twelfth  to Early Fourteenth Centuries

257 David J. Wasserstein: Gold Quasi-Coinage in Hamas-Ruled Gaza 2023

265 Ran Shalgi: The Specimen Pruta Coins of the State of Israel

277 Review: Haim Gitler, Catharine Lorber and Jean-Philippe Fontanille. The Yehud Coinage: A Study and Die Classification of  the Provincial Silver Coinage of Judah. Jerusalem 2023 (Aaron J. Kogon)

Abstracts

7 Dana Ashkenazi, Maayan Cohen, David Jeselsohn, Mati Johananoff, Haim Gitler
and Oren Tal: A Study of a Late Fifth Century BCE Jewelry, Hacksilber and Coin
Hoard from the Samaria Region
A small silver hoard purportedly found in the environs of Samaria during the 1970s is discussed below. The hoard consists of 25 silver-alloy items and includes jewelry, Hacksilber and two late fifth-century BCE coins from Sidon and Philistia, which provide its approximate burial date. The hoard was found within a ceramic pyxis. The items were studied from typological and archaeo-metallurgical perspectives (SEM–EDS chemical analysis), as well as thin-section petrographic analysis. The inclusion of the Sidonian and Philistian coins may demonstrate the initial and partial state of monetization within the southern Levant and corresponds with the recorded circulation patterns for these coin types during the period.

29 Christian Frevel: The Function of the Biblical ‘Holy Sheqel’: An Essay on Parallel
Standards and Their Conversion after the Introduction of Coinage
The paper discusses the biblical, epigraphic, and numismatic data on the ‘holy sheqel’ against the background of weight and coinage standards. There is no extra-biblical evidence supporting a 20-gerah standard for the sheqel during both the Monarchic and Babylonian-Persian periods. It is demonstrated that none of the biblical evidence predates the late Persian period. On this
basis, it is argued that the ‘holy sheqel’ was a virtual basis for the conversion of different currencies. This then is related to the simultaneous authority of the Torah in Jerusalem and on Mount Gerizim in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods.

55 Yoav Farhi, Dvir Raviv, Aharon Tavger and Boaz Gross: Numismatic Evidence
for Instability in Judea under Alexander Yanai (?): A Hasmonean-Period Coin Hoard
from Tel Bet Shemesh (East)
This paper presents a small bronze coin hoard found during recent salvage excavations at Tel Bet Shemesh (East). As of this writing, this hoard is unique in that its Hasmonean coins are all of the same general type: double cornucopias/inscription within wreath. In addition, its concealment date, during the reign of Alexander Yanai, probably before mid-80s BCE, is so far unknown from other hoards.

67 Linda T. Zollschan: A Neglected Identification of Bacchius Iudaeus
The reverse of a denarius minted in Rome (RRC 431/1), depicting a figure in an act of surrender, has the legend BACCHIVS IVDAEVS, which is a hapax legomenon. No literary or epigraphic sources reference this name, resulting in much speculation. Who was Bacchius Iudaeus, when was the coin minted and to the conclusion of which war does the surrender belong? This paper argues that the denarius was minted in 54 BCE, that the war was the 57–55 BCE revolt in Judea and the figure is its leader, Alexander, son of Aristobulos II.

83 Alexander Kaplun and Yoav Farhi: The Foundation Myth of Straton’s Tower: New
Numismatic Evidence on Coins of Caesarea Maritima
This paper discusses two largely unknown coin types of Caesarea Maritima. Comparing the scenes on the coins to the famous Caesarea Cup suggests identifying the scene as one of those depicted on the cup, related to the foundation of Straton’s Tower, the predecessor of Caesarea Maritima.

93 Alexander Kaplun and Yehuda Goldgur: A New Countermark on the Coins of
Askalon
We present evidence that a previously unpublished countermark showing a standing female figure can be attributed to the city of Askalon. We suggest an identification of the figure as Derketo, a local deity that appears on the coins of Askalon in the second and third centuries CE.

99 Jared J. Clark: The Coinage of Gadara under Tiberius: Reattributions and Corrections
Three coin types have thus far been attributed to the mint of Gadara during the reign of Tiberius. All are dated to Year 92 of the so-called Pompeian Era; L ЧB; 28/9 CE. The caduceus type was ascribed to Gadara despite the absence of an ethnic. This type can now be confirmed as Gadarene from a matching obverse die shared with the cornucopias type. New additions may be added to the coins of Gadara under Tiberius. This includes a new variety of the cornucopias type and a reattribution to Tiberius of a type originally associated with Caligula.

107 Achim Lichtenberger: Tumultuous Times: Tyre under Emperor Elagabalus
Tyre was one of the most prolific mints in the Hellenistic and Roman Southern Levant. Under Elagabalus the number of coin types increased drastically and an elaborate civic mythology was showcased. During the same period something dramatic happened in Tyre. The city lost its status as colonia and metropolis and legio III Gallica stationed in the city also disappeared
from its coins. In this paper, it is argued that the loss of metropolis and colonia status occurred when the images related to legio III Gallica also disappeared but that a causal relationship between the two events is not necessary.

123 Yoav Farhi, Yuval Gadot, Manfred Oeming and Oded Lipschits: A Late Roman
Coin Hoard from Ramat Raḥel and Its Possible Implications on the Site’s History
During the Byzantine Period
This article presents a Byzantine-period coin hoard found during the excavations at Ramat Raḥel, near Jerusalem. Based on its location and content, we believe that the hoard is a foundation deposit, buried very early in the fifth century CE. The function of the building in which it was found is discussed in light of this interpretation.

141 Haim Shaham, Zachi Devira and Gabriel Barkay: Two Noteworthy Byzantine
Weights from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
Two unique Byzantine coin weights were recovered and recently identified by the Temple Mount Sifting Project from soil removed without archaeological supervision from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in 1999. The first of the very rare four κερατίον denomination is made of glass. The impression of a known imperial stamp into it suggests that it was probably manufactured
in Byzantine Constantinople and came to Jerusalem before the Muslim conquest. The second, made of brass, bears a hitherto unknown kappa delta denomination marking; it is also of the four κερατίον denomination. The characteristics and significance of these finds are discussed here.

153 Haim Shkolnik, Nikolaus Schindel, Michael Hollunder and Binyamin Har-Even:
Umayyad Coins from Judaea and Samaria
This paper presents and discusses 131 Umayyad coins — two silver dirhams, 128 bronze fulūs and one lead piece. They were all found in controlled surveys and excavations conducted at various sites in Judea and Samaria; a number of coins from the Gaza Strip are included as well. Apart from the catalogue, numismatic observations on the coins are presented, as is a hitherto
unknown lead fals, presumably from Ba‘albak.

187 David Woods: The Mutilated and Collared Cross: The Identity of the Object on the
Reverse of the Standing Caliph Fulūs of ‘Abd al-Malik
The reverse of the Standing Caliph fals struck under ‘Abd al-Malik (685–705 CE) normally depicted an object consisting of a pole-on-steps crossed by an ellipse or circle. Several different interpretations of this device have been offered to date, perhaps the most popular being that the pole has been transformed into the Greek letter phi in abbreviation of the name of this coin
denomination, a ϕόλλις in Greek or fals in Arabic. It is argued here that the apparent ellipse or circle represents a slave collar and that it has been set upon a cross that has been disfigured by the removal of its horizontal bar in order to emphasize that the Christian community within the caliphate has been subjected in the manner of slaves.

207 David Woods: Bishop Elias (d. 700 CE) and the Standing Caliph Fulūs of Ḥarrān
It is argued that the Greek monogram on the reverse of the Standing Caliph fulūs struck at Ḥarrān resolves to read the name Elias, that this Elias is probably identifiable as the bishop of Ḥarrān of that name who died in 700, and that the identification of the person responsible for striking these coins as a Christian bishop explains why the fulūs struck at Ḥarrān are the only coins of this series that fail to identify the prophet Muhammad as the “messenger of God”.

217 Nikolaus Schindel: Four Notes on Crusader Copper Coinage from the Principality
of Antioch
This paper offers some observations on four copper coins from the Crusader Principality of Antioch. The first deals with the iconography of an anonymous type struck under Raymond of Poitiers (1136–1149), the second with an overstrike of the pougeoise featuring a helmeted head, the third addresses the legend of a late Antiochene copper coin, while the fourth presents another, even rarer type late in the Antiochene series.

227 Edward E. Cohen: Mapping the Earliest Paths of Place-value Numbers Across West
Asia, Part One: From the Late Twelfth to Early Fourteenth Centuries
In this first of two articles, a new technique considers Hindu-Arabic numerals on medieval coins to identify the earliest paths for transmitting place-value numbers town by town and year by year. This article reveals a route from Anatolia leading to the western border of China during the late twelfth to early fourteenth centuries CE. A future article will trace a later southern path
in the late fourteenth century CE. The paths skirted Phoenicia and the Southern Levant in these three centuries and deprived those areas of the economic prosperity and numerical awareness occurring in the rest of West Asia.

257 David J. Wasserstein: Gold Quasi-Coinage in Hamas-Ruled Gaza 2023
A limited, local, possibly experimental issue, by a private individual, of small gold weights intended, both from their weight and from their design, to function as a quasi-currency or a form of saving/hoarding of gold in Gaza in 2023* is studied. The products are studied to learn about their manufacture and their possible models and sources of inspiration; they are considered as
potential coins, being granted a degree of legitimacy by the Hamas regime in Gaza; and they are compared with stamps issued by the Palestinian Authority. It is concluded that they are unlikely to be a lasting phenomenon.

265 Ran Shalgi: The Specimen Pruta Coins of the State of Israel
When the British Mandate of Palestine ended in 1948, the fledgling State of Israel was immediately in need of circulation coins and banknotes. Attempts to strike coins in makeshift factories in Israel failed: the production rate was low, and the coin quality was poor. Coin production was therefore outsourced to the ICI Mint in Birmingham, U.K. Years later, a few pruta-series coins were found with the inscription SPECIMEN in raised letters. This brings the questions of how and why these coins came to be, how many exist, and how some of them ended up in the hands of collectors.