confirmation of Mk 124, 4 This identification of the quadrans with the chalkus has y been suggested on other grounds (see Madden, Coins,
p. 8001.)
there was the current issar-assarion, which was the dichalkus, and the tariff or Roman as—dis- tinguished from the other as the issar italki of the Mishna and the Palmyra tariff; cf. AD(cdpiov) ΤΤ](ἀλικον) on coins of Crete of the Ist cent. (Svoronos, Num. de la Créte ancienne),—which was double the value of the former. The quadrans, finally, was always a tariff coin, represented by the imperial coins of the procurators (40-45 grs.), but popularly known by the name of its tariff equivalent, the Greek chalkus (Heb. shdmin).*
C. THE CoINs OF THE REVOLTs.
§ 9. Coins of the First Revolt (A.D. 66-70).—In the year A.D. 66 began the struggle against the might of imperial Rome, which ended in the de- struction of both temple and city, August A.D. 70. To these five years (spring 66-67 to autumn 70-71) of the so-called ‘ first revolt’ must be ascribed the first issue of silver money from a Jewish mint. These are the famous shekels and half-shekels of which we now give the illustration (Nos. 14, 15 of plate) and description.
Obv. Sxrw> Spw [shékel Yisrdél, the shekel of Israel in old-Heb. characters. Type: a jewelle chalice with knop on stem ; ee the cup πῦῦὸ [contraction for 7 nw year five]; border of dots.
Rev. aerpa oder [Yérishalayim ha-kédéshah, Jerusalem the holy]in same characters. Type: a flowering lily ; aie of dots.
Obv. Spwn ssn [hdizt ha-shékel, the half-shekel] in old-Heb. characters. Type: a broad-lipped chalice with knop on stem, on either me a pellet (of incense?) ; above the cup §[=year 1];
rder of dots.
Rev. awrp ocbery [Yériishdlém kédéshah]. Type and border as in shekel.
The shekels and half-shekels of the first year are distinguished from those of the aol wane years (1) by the chalice having a broad projecting lip instead of a jewelled rim ; (2) by the letter § alone, without w; and (3) by the scriptio defectiva of the reverse legend, the adjective ‘holy,’ further, being without the article. No Jewish coins have given rise to so much discussion, or have been assigned to so many different periods of Jewish history as these.t The time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the age of Alexander the Great, and the principate of Simon Maccabeeus have all been proposed, the last in particular, by almost all recent writers on Jewish history and archeology. The main grounds on which this date must be pronounced untenable have beea given in a former section (§ 5). The explicit testimony of the coins themselves, with the uniform legend ‘ Jerusalem the holy,’ proves, according to a well-known numismatic canon, that the authority under whose auspices the coins were struck was that of an independent and autonomous city. Now Jerusalem enjoyed the requisite independence only on two occasions,} and on both the independ- ence was not constitutional but usurped. These two occasions coincide with the first and second revolts. The latter is out of the question, since the coins of that period are now known in great detail (see next §). There remains only the period
* This explains how the quadrans does not appear in a Hebraized form in the Mishna, like the as and the dupondius (5), which the Vulgate inserts in Lk 12%. The coins of Herod with a X (χαλκοῦν) on the obverse within a circle (Madden, p. 111), which weigh 43-48 gra, are also probably quadrantes-chalki. For the circulation of the quadrans in the East, see the Blass-Ramsay controversy over Mk 128 in the Exp. Times, x. (1898-99) passim.
{ Besides the discussions in the numismatic works mentioned in the bibliography to this article, see Schiirer, HJ Pt. ti. 870m.
t The most recent theory of all, that these shekels were struck by ‘ the (hypothetical) republic of Jerusalem’ set up by Gabinius, 5.6, 67/6-63/2 (Unger, ‘ zu Josephus iv., Die Republik Jerusalem,’ Sitzb. d. philos-philolog. Classe ἃ. Akad, zu Mianchen, 1897, p. 190ff.), is based on too many hazardous combinations to command our confidence,
480 MONEY
MONEY
of the first revolt, A.D. 66-70. We maintain, therefore,—and in this contention we claim the support of a growing body of expert opinion (Im- hoot-Blumer, Babelon, Reinach, and others),—that the coins in question were struck by the same executive authority (τὸ κοινὸν τῶν ᾿Ἱεροσολυμιτῶν, Jos. Life, passim) as was responsible for the defence of the city and the general conduct of the war. This atinhnsian is confirmed by the comparative frequency of coins of the first three years, by the rarity of coins of the fourth year, and by their almost complete absence in the fifth year (April to August A.D. 70), all corresponding in the most complete manner with the success and gradual collapse of the Jewish power in the course of the revolt. Further, the fabric and module of these shekels present a remarkable similarity to those of the tetradrachms of Nero and Vespasian, issued about the same time from the mint of Antioch.t It is possible, as Reinach suggests, that the im- mediate purpose of the new coinage was to supply, for the first time in Jewish history, native ‘ ΠΟ ΚῚΣ of the sanctuary’ for the various religious dues.}
The question of the copper coinage of the two revolts is too intricate a subject for detailed dis- cussion here (see Schiirer, HJP I. ii. 383 ff. for the conflicting views of numismatists). Only two sets of bronze coins can now, in all probability, be assigned to the same period as the silver shekels. These are (1) a set of small coins distinguished by the legend ps nnn (hértith Ziyyén, emancipation of Zion) round a vine leaf, and on the obverse, in old- Hebrew characters, ‘year two’ and ‘year three’ (illustr. Madden, p. 206). (2) A series of copper coins of three denominations, of which the dis- tinguishing mark is the legend prs ndxab (lig’ullath Ziyyén, the redemption of Zion) on the reverse; the obverses have the following : (a) 'sn yans maw (year four—a half), (6) ν᾽ yrx nw (year four—a quarter), and (c) yanx naw (year four) alone. The principal types (see Madden, p. 71 ff.) are the lélab (abs, a sort of bouquet composed of twigs of the myrtle and willow with a palm leaf ; see Ly 23) and ‘ethrog (s5ny a citron), which were carried in either hand at the feast of Booths. The obverse of the third group (c), however, is the chalice, which serves to connect the whole series with the shekels of the first revolt. The coins just described are generally known as ‘ the copper shekels of the year four,’ it being asswmed that they represent 4, 3, and 3 shekels respectively. If this fe so—the view is by no means beyond question—these coins will be specimens of ‘siege money,’ tokens issued by the authorities to be re- deemed by silver money after the victory—which never came,