Biblical coins date back to approximately the 6th century BCE, when Judea was part of the Persian empire. The Persians allowed the Jewish authority to mint small silver coins with the Hebrew inscription “YEHUD” in place of the usual Greek inscription.

The Hasmonean dynasty, also referred to as the Maccabees, were Jewish kings who ruled from 142 to 63 BCE. The third Hasmonean king, Alexander Jannaeus, was the first to issue large amounts of Jewish coinage. These biblical coins consisted of bronze prutot and lepta (or half-prutah). Some of these biblical coins featured a double cornucopia on the obverse, and a Hebrew inscription on the reverse.

Other biblical coins from this time were prutot with an anchor and a Greek inscription on one side and a “sun-wheel” starburst design on the other with Alexander Jannaeus in Hebrew inscribed between the wheel’s rays.

Some rare biblical coins were issued by Antigonus Mattathias, the last of the Hasmonean kings. These were crudely struck and feature his name backwards in Hebrew. Some extremely rare biblical coins from this time showed the menorah, which had not appeared before on coins.

The biblical coins of the time of Herod the Great had many different designs, including a pomegranate and a palm branch. However, the most common coin of Herod the Great was a prutah similar to the Hasmonean prutah containing an anchor and “King Herod” in Greek on one side and a double cornucopia on the other side.

The lepton, or half-prutah, is believed to be the biblical coin referred to in the New Testament Gospel of Mark as the widow’s mite in Jesus’ teachings concerning the impoverished widow who gave her last two widow’s mites in the temple. These biblical coins may be the smallest denomination coins ever made.

Ancient Jewish silver coins, the shekel and half shekel, are biblical coins dating from the time of the first Jewish revolt in the year 66 CE. These silver biblical coins have a chalice and “Shekel of Israel” in Hebrew on one side, and pomegranates with “Jerusalem the Holy” inscribed in Hebrew on the other.

Biblical coins from the Second Jewish revolt, under the leadership of Simon Bar Kochba, were from a two to three-year period and were stamped using existing coins with the original designes filed off. On some of these traces of the original design can be seen. After the biblical coins from the Second Jewish revolt in 132-135 CE, no coins were minted by a self-governing Jewish state until modern Israel was established in 1948.