Lot 130
Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Sela (14.53 g), 132-135 CE. Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5 CE). 'Simon' (Paleo-Hebrew), tetrastyle façade of the Temple of Jerusalem; show bread table or Ark of the Covenant in chest form with semicircular lid and short legs, seen from a narrow side; above façade, star. Rev. 'For the freedom of Jerusalem' (Paleo-Hebrew), lulav with etrog at left. (Mildenberg 73 (O11/R42); TJC 267; Hendin 1411). Very rare - only five specimens cited by Mildenberg. Struck on a huge flan and lustrous surfaces. Mint state. Estimate $6,000UP
Purchased privately from D. Hendin, February 1996.
This and the following undated sela'im were struck in the third and final year (134/5 CE) of the Bar Kokhba war. The types of the Temple and the lulav and etrog are continued, but the coins are no longer dated "year 1" or "year 2 of the redemp-tion of Israel," and instead the slogan "for the freedom of Jerusalem" is used on the reverse. The name of the holy city of Jerusalem no longer appears around the Temple (perhaps suggesting it was now out of reach) and is replaced by Bar Kokhba's first name Simon. The messianic vision was being shattered, and the coins convey this message in their own cryptic way.
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| Realized $7,080 |
