Ancient Jewish coins date to the time when Judea was a part of the Persian empire, from the 6th to the 4th centuries BCE. Near the end of this time, with the permission of the Persians, an autonomous Jewish authority minted small silver coins. Some had an owl design similar to that on silver Greek coins, with the Greek inscription replaced by the Hebrew “YEHUD,” the Persian name for Judea.

In the second century BCE, when the emperor Antiochus VII gained control of Jerusalem, he authorized minting of small coins of bronze that are believed to be half Jewish and half Syrian. The Jewish side of this ancient Jewish coin features a lily, which is a symbol closely associated with Jerusalem, while the Syrian side features an anchor, an inscription referring to Antiochus, and the year.

The Hasmoneans, also called the Maccabees, ruled in Israel from 142 to 63 BCE. Ancient Jewish coinage of the Hasmonean era is generally defined to begin with the rule of Alexander Jannaeus, even though there were two Hasmonean kings before Alexander: John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE) and Judah Aristobulus (104-103 BCE).

Except for an extremely rare ancient Jewish double prutah of John Hyrcanus and some large coins of later Hasmonean king Antigonus Mattathias, all Hasmonean coins were small bronze prutahs and half prutahs (lepta). All Hasmonean prutot had a double cornucopia on one side and an inscription in Hebrew on the other.

Another common ancient Jewish Hasmonean coin has an anchor surrounded by a Greek inscription on one side and on the other a “sun-wheel” with a Hebrew inscription of “Yehonatan Hamelech” (Alexander Jannaeus) between the spokes.

Ancient Jewish coins of the last Hasmonean king, Antigonus Mattathias (40-37 BCE) are rarer, and more crudely struck. On them, his Hebrew name with no title is always backwards. The rarest of Judean coins was issued during Mattathias’ last days as king and feature the menorah, which had not appeared before and did not appear on Jewish coinage again until the modern state of Israel.

Herod the Great’s coins had innovative designs including a pomegranate, a winged caduceus, a plumed helmet with shield, and a palm branch. The most common ancient Jewish coin of Herod the Great, however, is a prutah similar to the Hasmonean prutah, with an anchor and “King Herod” inscribed in Greek and double cornucopia surrounding a caduceus.

The first ancient Jewish silver coins, the shekel and half shekel, are from the time of the first Jewish Revolt in 66 CE, when Jews captured Jerusalem and the Temple. These ancient Jewish coins have a chalice on one side, the year of the revolt, and in Hebrew “Shekel of Israel.” On the reverse are pomegranates and the Hebrew inscription “Jerusalem the Holy.”

Ancient Jewish coins from the Second Jewish revolt under Simon Bar Kochba were struck over existing coins, on some of which parts of the original stamping can be seen. These coins were from a period of two to three years and are the final coins minted by a self-governing Jewish state until modern Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Jewish history is recounted in many ways, and one fascinating way of learning about Jewish history is by learning about coins. After all, at various periods of history, coins passed through the hands of people of every station of life, and the inscriptions, images, and coin striking methods tell their own story of the times in which they were made and used.

Though coins weren’t used during the time of Moses, Jewish history indicates that standard weights were used, as told in the story of Abraham’s servants taking an earring weighing half a shekel and two bracelets of ten shekels for Rebekah, the future wife of Isaac. Some 1,000 years later, King David had a spearhead weighing 600 shekels of iron.

Though the Greeks issued coins as far back as the 8th century BCE, it wasn’t until 6th century BCE that coins were used in and around Judea, according to Jewish history. The first coins depicting a person rather than a mythological figure were the Persian gold darics named for King Darius and depicting him running with a spear or bow and arrow. These were the only coins referred to in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Jewish history and Christian history record the significance of the silver shekels and half-shekels that were issued in the Phoenician city Tyre from around 126 BCE to 66 CE. They were the standard silver coinage in the region and replaced the coins of Alexander the Great. During the period of Jewish history when Tyrian shekels circulated, Judean taxes were denoted in shekels.

The first truly Jewish coins in Jewish history are generally considered to be the ones issued under the third Hasmonean king, Alexander Jannaeus, who ruled from 103-76 BCE. These are the prutah and half-prutah (lepton) coins that figure so prominently in the Maccabean period of Jewish history.

After the Maccabean period of Jewish history, the coins of Herod were issued, and these contained depictions other than the typical cornucopia and anchor, though coins with these images were issued under Herod as well.

At the time of the First Jewish revolt in 66 CE, the Temple’s treasury of Tyrian shekels were restruck as the most famous coins in Jewish history: the silver shekel and half-shekel, the first truly Jewish coins made of silver.

At the time of the Second Jewish revolt (132-135 CE), the Jews under the leadership of Simon Bar Kochba had no Temple and thus no Temple treasury. As a sign of sovereignty in this brief but important period of Jewish history, they gathered all the bronze and silver foreign coins, filed off the designs, and restruck the coins with Jewish symbols. On some of these coins, traces of the original designs can be seen, multiplying their historical significance.

There are many ways of looking at Jewish history. By studying the coins throughout ancient Jewish history, it is possible to get a fascinating look at the daily lives and politics of the various historical periods.