H. Gitler, A Hoard of Persian Yehud Coins From the Environs of Ramallah, Numisma 250 (2006), pp. 319–324. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Izaak J. de Hulster, 2009
This article deals with the interpretation of a British Museum coin (TC 242.5, due to its reverse also known as YHW-coin) and what it tells about Persian period Yehud. Many realities meet each other in this coin. The article touches on issues of the minting authority, the relation of this authority to the Persian government, the role of religious authorities, the significance of the obverse, the choice of the script and the iconography of the coin. NOTE: this paper was published September 2009 at our Early Jewish Monotheisms project website (http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/122432.htmlresources/dehulster\_tc242.pdf). Being unavailable there, it can now be read here.
The history of the identification of seven mints of locally minted Persian-period coins in the southern Levant (some with uncertain identifications) is surveyed. As there have been various difficulties in distinguishing between some of the different types of mints, 193 archaeologically provenanced coins were collected and most were plotted on a map. Other coins from within these series, but from non-archaeologically reported provenances, were also plotted, this time on a second map. Individually and together, the maps were examined to see how the coins' circulation could contribute to the problems of mint attribution. Using examples of Persian-period coins from the Philistian site of Gan Soreq, the need for caution in these coins' mint ascriptions is highlighted. General conclusions regarding the circulation patterns of the coins are suggested, as are proposals to encourage the interim adoption of more indefinite terminology for certain coins' mint attributions -until they can be shown to be more secure.
Persian-Period Philistian Coins from Ashdod-Yam
The group of Persian-period Philistian coins described here was found during two seasons of renewed excavations at the site of Ashdod-Yam. This discovery, from a site located in the heart of Philistia and connected to Ashdod, allows the reassessment of certain types of Persian-period coins, hitherto known only from unprovenanced collections.
The Yehud Coinage – A Study and Die Classification of the Provincial Silver Coinage of Judah, 2023
This volume presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian, Macedonian, and early Hellenistic periods. It offers correct descriptions of the coins, their designs, and their inscriptions; enumerates the obverse and reverse dies identified for each of the 44 recorded types; and explains the probable sequence of the issues as deduced from iconographic associations and die links. The iconography of the coin types is examined in depth, with comparisons to motifs in Greek, Persian, and ancient Near Eastern art, including other local coinages and sources in Judahite material culture. The monograph also analyzes data relating to the metrology, metal content, and circulation of the coinage. Overall, the study attempts to place the Yehud coinage in its historical context and to define its role in the economy of the ancient province of Judah.
Israel Numismatic Research, 2023
On 7 October this year, a half-century since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Sabbath calm and festive atmosphere of the Simhat Torah holiday were destroyed by terrorists. Bursting at dawn in their thousands into Israeli towns and kibbutzim bordering on the Gaza Strip, they slaughtered, with every variety of savagery, about 1,300 innocent civilians, injured countless others, and seized some 240 hostages, including babies, whom they dragged back into Gaza. As this volume goes to press, most of the hostages' fate is unknown. We grieve for the dead, pray for the recovery of the wounded, the return of the hostages and, with the Psalmist, seek peace and pursue it. See www.ins.org.il for the INS's exceptional activities at this difficult time.
The paper discusses a so far unknown group of peculiar Athenian-styled Palestinian coins. This group, which includes mainly “drachms” but some “obols” as well, was struck from worn obverse dies (i.e., dies damaged by prolonged use), which were then recut and repolished. As a result, the coins’ obverse in many cases is simply dome-shaped, with no traces of Athena’s head or helmet being recognizable. The coins’ distribution suggests that they circulated in the boundaries of what we define as Edom in the later part of the Persian period and might well have been the silver money mentioned in several of the Edomite ostraca.
"By means of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), metallurgical analyses of southern Palestinian coins of the Persian period were performed. The main group of analyzed coins consists of dome-shaped quarter sheqels (“drachms”), which were struck from worn, recut and repolished obverse dies that based on their circulation were defined as Edomite. In addition, several Philistian coins were analyzed as a reference group. Our results suggest that much of the silver bullion used for striking the Edomite and Philistian coins originated in the Greek world, most probably from Athenian ‘owls’ and that Edomite coinage was probably produced by a central Philistian minting authority based on identical silver content."