NATURE 
549 
THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1882 
THE COINS OF THE FEWS 
The International Numismata Orientalia. Vol. ii. Coins 
of the Jews. By Frederic W. Madden, M.R.A.S. 
(London : Triibner and Co., 1881.) 
A aS goodly quarto of nearly 350 pages, illustrated by 
279 woodcuts, forms the second volume of the 
International Numismata Crientalia, which has been for 
some time in course of publication uncer, we believe, the 
chief editorship of Mr. Edward Thomas. The work now 
before us may be regarded as being virtually a second 
edition of Mr. Madden’s ‘‘ History of Jewish Coinage and 
of Money in the Cld and New Testaments,’’ witich was 
-published in 1&64; but in many respects the book has 
been so much enlarged, and we venture to think im- 
proved, that it may almost take rank as a new work. 
Any summary of the strictly numismatic details of such a 
publication would be out of place in the pages of NATURE, 
but the public interest in all modern researches in the 
Holy Land, such as those carried on under the Palestine 
Exploration Fund, and the success that has attended the 
foundation of the Society of Biblical Archeology, prove 
the strong hold which, in this, and indeed in al] Christian 
countries, the cradle of our religion retains. 
Of contemporary witnesses of history, coins are among 
the best, but since the days of Bayer, the Archdeacon of 
Valentia, who wrote “ De Nummis Hebrzo-Samaritanis ” 
just a century ago, there was a lull in the study of this 
branch of numismatics until within the last thirty years, 
when the labours of De Sauloy, Cavedoni, Levy, Von 
Werlhof, Reichardt, Madden, Garrucci, Merzbacher, and 
others began. The results of these labours, incorporated 
in Mr. Madden’s present work, contrast strangely with 
Pinkerton’s estimation of the Jewish coinage, as expressed 
in his Essay on Medals, which for many years was almost 
the only work of the kind accessible in English. The 
first edition appeared in 1784, but even in the third 
edition of 1808 we read :— 
“The Hebrew shekels—which are of silver—and brass 
coins with Samaritan characters would have been put 
before, were not, most of them, later than the Christian 
zra, and generally the fabrication of modern Jews. At 
any rate the same impression of a sprig on one side and a 
vase on the other runs through all the coins of that bar- 
barous nation ; and the admission of but one of them is 
rightly esteemed to be almost a disgrace to a cabinet.” 
Certainly so far as art is concerned, the best and earliest 
of the Jewish coins compare unfavourably with those of 
the contemporary Seleucid rulers in Syria. For it must 
not be imagined that the Jewish shekel, notwithstanding 
its frequent mention in Scripture, was at any time an 
actual piece of coined money before the days of the Mac- 
cabees—or at the earliest, the time of Alexander the 
Great and the high priest Jaddua. If we accept the views 
of Dr. Merzbacher, who is probably the most competent 
judge in this matter, the earliest of the Jewish shekels 
were not struck until B.c. 141-140, when those dated 
n-w, the year one, were coined. These pieces are of 
silver, about the size of our shillings, and fully twice as 
thick, and range in date from the year I to 5. Half 
shekels are known up to the year 4. The devices on the 
VOL. xxv.—No. 650 
shekels are, on the one side, a cup or chalice, with the 
legend Sxnu Spy, Shekel Israel; and on the other, what 
has been termed Aaron’s rod, but what more resembles 
three lilies on one stem. and the legend Jerwsalem the 
Holy. tis a curious circumstance, that en the coins of 
the first year, Jerusalem is spelt without a vod, and Holy 
is without the article and without the vav, sw op o7ws), 
Jerushalem kedoshah ; while on the later coins the legend 
is always Aw ITPA pdunyy, Jerushalain ha-kedoshah. 
Besides the silver coins, there is a copper coinage in- 
ecribed with “the year four,” but it seems somewhat 
doubtful whether it belongs to the same period as the 
shekels bearing the same date. Possibly future finds of 
coins with the shekels and other pieces either Jewish or 
foreign intermixed may settle the question not only of 
contemporaneity, but of actual date. The fact of the 
coins of the fourth year bearing upon them the legend, 
‘The redemption of Zion,” as well as the shape of some 
of the letters, points to these coins belonging to a Jater 
date than the shekels. At the same time the fabric looks 
as if they were of earlier date than the coins of the 
revolts, shortly to be mentioned. 
Of John Hyrcanus, Judas Aristobulus, and Alexander 
Jannzus there are numerous copper coins of undoubted 
attribution. The Herods and Agrippas are also well 
represented; but among the most interesting, and at the 
same time perplexing coins of the series are those which 
were struck under the revolts against the Roman power, 
from A.D. 66 to 70, under Vespasian, and again under 
Hadrian, from A.D. 132 to 135. Without entering into any 
details with regard to these coins, it may be worth while 
to mention some of the devices upon them and to add a 
few words as to their palzographical bearing. Although 
portraits occur on coins of some of the Idumzean princes, 
the representation of any living creature is carefully 
avoided on all the more purely Jewish pieces. A favourite 
device is the palm tree, like which “ the righteous shall 
flourish”; though this was also a common device on coins 
of Carthage. The /w/aé, or bunch of “ branches of goodly 
trees,” and the e¢hvog, or citron, such as were carried at 
the Feast of Tabernacles, also make their appearance on 
the coins. The vine leaf and the bunch of grapes, pro- 
bably typical of “the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, being 
the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant 
plant,” are often represented. The flagons and cups, and 
the lyres or “stringed instruments” and trumpets, are 
probably symbolical of the Temple worship; and on 
some of the shekels of the revolts we find a gateway 
which not improbably represents the Beautiful Gate of 
the Temple. 
From a palzographical point of view the Jewish coinage 
is of great value as definitely fixing the ordinary forms of 
certain letters at given dates. This part of the subject is 
well illustrated by a folding plate comprising some thirty 
alphabets, from the ninth century B.C. to the tenth century 
after the Christian era. To these is prefixed an alphabet 
selected from Egyptian hieratic characters, from which 
M. Francois Lenormant and others have maintained that 
the early Phcenician alphabet was derived. Such a deri- 
vation appears to us at the best problematical ; but it 
would be too much of a digression here to enter into the 
question. It is more to the purpose to note that while 
there is in the main a close correspondence between the 
BB 
