Lot 3011
Bar Kochba Revolt. Silver Zuz (3.41 g), 132-135 CE. Year 1 (132/3 CE). 'Year one of the redemption of Israel', grape bunch on vine with small leaf. Reverse: 'Eleazar the priest', jug with handle; willow branch at right. Mildeberg II.2.4 (O2/R1; this coin); TJC 219; Hendin 1374 (this coin). Very rare. Boldly struck with all the letters clearly defined. Lightly toned. Extremely Fine.
The branch to the right of the jug has traditionally been identified as a palm branch. In "The Temple Willow-Branch Ritual Depicted on Bar Kochba Denarii," INJ 16 (2007-2008), pp. 131-5, Y. Adler argues that it is in fact a willow branch, and represents the willow branch ceremony that took place along with the water ceremony (represented by the jug) at the Temple altar during the Feast of Tabernacles.
Bar Kochba Silver Zuz Year 1
Mildenberg cites only 9 specimens with this die combination. The obverse inscription "Eleazar the Priest" on a year 1 coin, is extremely rare, relative to the dozens of year 1 zuzim inscribed with "Shim'on."
Who was this Eleazar ? Some scholars think that he may have been Eleazar of Mod'in, the uncle of bar Kochba mentioned in rabbinic literature. Whoever he was, "the prominence given to a high priest on the coinage was surely connected with the rebels' aim of restoring the Temple and its cult, and Eleazar was clearly the religious leader, parallel but subordinate to the political military leader" (E. Mary Smallwood, Jews under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian: A study in political relations (Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity, ed. Jacob Neusner, volume. 20). Reprint with corrections. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981, p. 441).
Mildenberg, in his seminal work, noted that it is possible that Bar Kochba's men knew of the rebel coins of the Jewish War (The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War, Aarau: Verlag Sauerlaender, 1984, p. 68). Possibly as well, the engravers knew of coins of the Hasmonaeans, with the inscriptions including the appellation "High Priest," since recently a hoard was discovered in western Jerusalem, wherein Bar Kochba coins had been buried with a coin of the Jewish War as well as with a bronze prutah of John Hyrcanus. The Bar Kochba coin of Year 1, inscribed with "Eleazar, the Priest" would comply with Mildenberg's idea: that the minters of the Bar Kochba coins chose to propogate by their coins taken as a group a plan that conformed either to the memory of the destroyed Temple or to their dream of a new Temple to come.
See discussion in: B. Zissu, R. Langford, and A. Frumkin, "Archaeological Remains of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the Te'omim Cave (Mugharet Umm et Tueimin)," Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. LXII, No. 2/Autumn 2011, 262-283.
Estimated Value $25,000-UP.
Ex Hendin plate coin; Ex A. Spaer Collection; Beit Mirsim Hoard (Hebron Hills, 1973-1974).
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| Realized $41,125 |
