Lot 131
Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Sela (15.33 g), 132-135 CE. Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5 CE). Judaea, Bar Kokhba Revolt. Silver Sela (15.33 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 56 (O13/R42); TJC 267; Hendin 1411). The outline of the head of Vespasian visible on the reverse. Lustrous. Nearly mint state. Estimate $5,000UP
Purchased privately from D. Hendin, February 1996.
A somewhat clear portrait of Vespasian, the father of Titus - the Roman conquerer of Jerusalem in 70 CE - can still be seen here peeking through the Jewish types of this sela. The undertype is, of course, a Syrian provincial tetradrachm, and the effacement caused by overstriking the host coin is symbolic of the Bar Kochba rebels' desire to erase the stain of Roman oppression in Judaea.
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| Realized $6,195 |
