AFTER the First Jewish Revolt (66 – 70AD) when Jerusalem and the Temple

were destroyed by the Romans, Judaearemained firmly under Roman control,but the Jews were restless and eventuallythey rebelled again under the leadershipof Simon Bar-Kokhba (also spelt Kochba).He was a warrior with a lot of charismaand many Jewish men responded to hiscall. The rebels minted their own coins,not only to avoid handling the hatedRoman ones but to spread their messageof freedom. It was an effective form ofpropaganda. The coins are of silver and bronze. Thereis a large silver coin (tetradrachm) anda small one (drachm or denarius). The

tetradrachms all have the façade of atemple on the obverse, and presumablyit is the temple that the rebels hoped torebuild in Jerusalem. The object inside thetemple probably represents the Ark ofthe Covenant. On the reverse a lulav andetrog are shown. The lulav is a bundle ofmyrtle and willow tied around a palmfrond. With the etrog, a kind of lemon, itwas waved during Succoth (also speltSukkot), which is the thanksgiving festivalthat is also known as the Feast of Taber-nacles or Booths. For the Jews at that timethe lulav and etrog symbolized the hopethat the temple would be rebuilt. A typicaltetradrachm is shown in Figure 2. Theinscriptions are in old Hebrew: ‘Jerus-alem’ on the obverse, and ‘Year two of thefreedom of Israel’ on the reverse. Therebels probably did not hold Jerusalem,at least not for long, because very few Bar-Kokhba coins have been found there. Thelargest hoard of Bar-Kokhba silver coinsever discovered by archaeologists wasfound in 2009 in a cave on the westernedge of the Jerusalem hills (B. Zissu et

al., INJ 17, 113). It consisted of 20tetradrachms and 63 drachms.On the drachms there are various sym-bols that mostly relate to the worship inthe temple. On a typical example (Figure3) the name ‘Simon’ appears in a wreathon the obverse, and on the reverse there isa lyre with ‘For the freedom of Jerusalem’.Music was an important part of the tem-ple worship: ‘Praise Him with the harpand lyre.’ (Psalm 150: 3b) The bronze coins are large, middle orsmall, and they show various symbols. Atypical bronze coin is shown in Figure 4.It is of middle size, 26 mms in diameter.On the obverse there is a palm tree withbunches of dates. The date palm was com-mon in Judaea (Bethany means ‘house ofdates’) and it was a symbol of the country.On the coin it has seven branches, remin-ding the viewer of the Menorah, the greatseven-branched candelabra that stood inthe temple until it was carried away bythe Romans in 70 AD. The inscription onthe obverse is ‘Simon’. It is interesting tonote that until well into the 20th century

Figure 1 – View of Herodium frombelow. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 2 – Obverse and reverse of a tetradrachm of Bar-Kokhba. Hendin, 5th edition, 1387.(Collection of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane. Image used with permission.)

Figure 3 – Obverse and reverse of a drachmof Bar-Kokhba. Hendin, 5th edition, 1429.

the name ‘Simon’ was thought to refer toSimon Maccabeus, who led the Macca-bean Revolt in 166 BC. On the reverse ofthe coin there is a vine leaf with ‘Year twoof the freedom of Israel’. The vine leaf sym-bolized the chosen people: ‘You broughta vine out of Egypt. You drove out thenations and planted it.’ (Psalm 80:8)The coin in Figure 4 is unusual becausenearly all the Hebrew letters are clearlyshown. With a little knowledge of Hebrewit is not difficult to translate the inscrip-tions, providing a conversion table (e.g.Table IV in Head’s Historia Numorum)is used to convert the old Hebrew lettersinto Classical Hebrew letters. The letterthat looks like ‘y’ (O on the coin) representsa sound like rough breathing. It does notoccur in English. On this coin it is out of

its usual position: it should be to the leftof the M. Don’t forget that Hebrew isread from right to left and that vowelsare not usually indicated in the ancientHebrew script. It is very satisfying for acollector to be able to work out for himselfthe meaning of an inscription on a coin.Apart from ‘Simon’, the only other nameto appear on the coins is ‘Eleazar thePriest’. This name appears on the reverseof small silver and bronze coins. The silvercoin has a jug and a willow branch on theobverse and a bunch of grapes on the rev-erse (Figure 5). The jug was probably usedin the temple during Succoth. The bunchof grapes probably represents the fruit-fulness of the land and might also refer toSuccoth. The bronze coin (Figure 6) hasa seven-branched date palm on the ob-verse and a bunch of grapes on the rev-erse. But who is Eleazar the priest? Itseems that he might have been Simon’s

uncle and that it was he who hailed himas the Messiah, calling him ‘son of a star’,referring to the prophecy in Numbers24:17, ‘A star shall come out of Jacob.’ Thefact that Eleazar’s name does not appearon coins bearing the date ‘year two’ sug-gests that he fell out with his nephew.According to a rabbinic account Simonkilled him. Unlike the First Jewish Revolt (66 – 70AD) when coins were struck on new flansof pure silver, all the coins of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt were struck on alreadyminted Roman coins. Remnants of theunder-coin are not commonly seen on thetetradrachms, presumably because morecare was taken with these valuable coins.They are rarely seen on the bronze coinsbecause the pagan images were filed off,

Figure 5 – Silver coin (19 mms diam.) with‘Eleazar the Priest’ on the obverse and ‘Yearone of the redemption of Israel’ on the reverse.Hendin 1374. It sold at auction in September2012 for US$14000 plus buyer’s fees. (Imagecourtesy of Heritage coins, HA.com)

Figure 6 – Bronze coin (17 mms diam.) with‘Eleazar the Priest’ on the obverse and‘Year one of the redemption of Israel’ on thereverse. Hendin 1380a. (Image courtesy ofRosenblumcoins.com)

Figure 4 – Obverse and reverse of a bronze coin of Bar-Kokhba. Hendin, 5th edition, 1408a.

Figure 7 – Reverse of the drachm in Figure 3turned on its side.

Figure 8 – Obverse of the drachm in Figure 3turned to one side.

Figure 9 – Obverse of drachm of Trajan withArabia reverse. SNG, ANS, Part 6, 1157.

a wasteful process unsuited to the silvercoins. The file marks can sometimes beseen on the bronze coins. But evidence ofthe over-struck coin is commonly found onthe small silver coins. These coins are funfor collectors of ancient coins because witha little detective work it is often possible towork out what the underlying coin is. Let’sdo this exercise with the coin in Figure 3.

If you turn the page to the right so thatthe lyre is horizontal, the profile of theemperor Trajan is obvious, as is part of theinscription on the original coin (Figure7). Looking at the side of the coin bearingSimon’s name, if you turn the page it isobvious that the line above his name fitsexactly the edge of a figure on a coin ofTrajan that was minted at Bostra in the

Roman province of Arabia (Figure 8). Anexample of the original coin is shown inFigure 9: a woman personifying Arabiastands holding what is thought to be abundle of cinnamon sticks, while a tinycamel appears on her right. Also on theBar- Kokhba coin part of the original in-scription can be seen, and it reveals adate equivalent to 117 AD. So the Bar-Kokhba Revolt must have begun after117 AD. Actually, none of the over-struckcoins bears a date later than 132 AD, andtherefore we can say that the revolt beganin 132 AD. As the Bar-Kokhba coins indi-cate the year of the revolt (except for onegroup shown by die studies to be from year3) we can say that it lasted from 132 to135 AD.Having worked out the chronology, canthe coins be used to work out the geog-raphy? An idea of the extent of the terri-tory controlled by the rebels can beobtained by seeing where their coins havebeen found by archaeologists. (See map,Figure 10) The north-western border is atthe village of Hurvat Burnat (south) where2 bronze coins were found. About 20 kmssouth of the village fragments of coinswere found at the fortress of Khirbet el-‘Aqd. They were apparently broken duringthe overstriking process, which suggeststhat a mobile mint was there. The north-eastern border is at Wadi ed-daliyeh wherea coin fragment was found. About 10 kmsNE of Jerusalem in the el-Jai cave 4 coinswere found. The south-western border isat the fortified settlement of Nahal Yatirwhere 3 coins were found. The south-eastern border is at Nahal Harduf whereone coin was found. In the centre of the rebel-held territoryone would expect to find the main mint,and the large number of coins found atHerodium (Figures 1 and 11) suggeststhat it was. Herodium was a fortress thatKing Herod (39 – 4 BC) built into the topof a mountain, and in 2007 his tomb wasdiscovered half way up the mountain byProfessor Ihud Netzer. Previously fifteenBar-Kokhba coins had been found at Her-odium and in 1967 a hoard of 822 of hiscoins was found, and more of his coins werediscovered in the tunnels underneath.This also suggests that Herodium was therebel headquarters, at least for a while,because Simon Bar-Kokhba died at Bethar(Beitar), which is about 15 kms NW ofHerodium. The rebels made their laststand at the fortress of Bethar, and theRomans made tremendous efforts tobesiege and capture it. They were finallysuccessful in 135 AD. Little was known about Simon Bar-Kokhba, and the coins have been of greatvalue in telling his story. There is nodoubt that the Bar-Kokhba War was aterrible war. Cassius Dio, a 3rd centuryRoman historian, wrote, ‘Five hundred andeighty thousand men were slain in thevarious raids and battles, and the num-ber of those that perished by famine, dis-

Figure 10 – Map showing find-sites of Bar-Kokhba coins. (Drawing based on the map on page166 in INJ 14, 2000 – 2. The map follows an article entitled ‘The Geographical Distributionof Coins from the Bar Kokhba War’ by Boaz Zissu and Hanan Eshel.)

Figure 11 – Aerial view of Herodium. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

ease and fire was past finding out. Thusnearly the whole of Judaea was madedesolate.’ He does not record how manyRoman soldiers (Figure 12) were killed. In 1960 the archaeologist, Yigael Yadin,discovered some letters written by Simonin a cave in the wall of a canyon just westof the Dead Sea. They were taken thereby a group of his followers hiding fromthe Romans. In one of the letters hewrites, ‘Send to the camp, towards you,

palm branches and etrogs. And you, fromyour place, send others who will bringyou myrtles and willows. See that they aretithed and send them to the camp.’ Thisshows that Simon and his men celebratedSuccoth. The items used in the festival areshown on the tetradrachm in Figure 2.Other letters found by Yadin revealed thatthe rebels called the tetradrachm a sela,and the small silver coin a zuz.Simon’s letters revealed that his real

name was Simon Bar Kosiba. The name,Bar-Kokhba (son of a star), was appliedto him by his followers. He usually beganhis letters, ‘Simon Bar Kosiba’ with thetitle ‘Nasi Y’srael’, which in Classical He-brew means a leader or prince of Israel,but in modern Hebrew means ‘president’.Soon after making his discovery an emot-ional Yadin informed the then presidentof Israel that he had discovered dis-patches ‘written or dictated by the lastpresident of Israel 1800 years ago.’When Yadin and his team began exam-ining the cave they did not know that ithad been occupied at the time of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt. In his book, Bar-Kokhba:the rediscovery of the legendary hero ofthe Second Jewish Revolt against Rome(Random House, New York, 1971), he des-cribes what happened. One of the teammembers went to the edge of the ledgeoutside the cave to urinate. On his wayback he found a small bronze coin withSimon’s name on it. On the same side ofthe coin there was a palm tree, and on theother side, a bunch of grapes and the in-scription, ‘For the freedom of Jerusalem’.When the coin was discovered, one of thesoldiers asked Yadin what it was worth.He replied that the type was commonenough and could be bought cheaplyfrom any antiquities’ dealer, but whenfound here in the cave it became priceless.

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