328 The First Jewish Shekels. 



THE FIRST JEWISH SHEKELS, 



WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE SUCCEEDING COINAGES OF 

 JUBMA, TILL THE KEDUCTION OF JEKUSALEM TO THE 

 CONDITION OF A EOMAN COLONY, IN THE EEIGN OF 

 HADKIAN. 



BY H. NOEL HUMPHKEYS. 



(With a Tinted Plate.) 



The class of ancient monuments, known as Jewish shekels,, 

 closely connected as they are with sacred history, have long 

 formed a very attractive branch of archaeological investiga- 

 tion, but till quite recently the researches connected with 

 their study did not tend to very satisfactory results. While 

 numismatic discoveries had led, in the study of Greek 

 and Roman coins, to valuable and striking illustrations of 

 history, and even to the reconstruction of histories that 

 had been lost, all researches connected with the ancient 

 coins of the Jews proved unsatisfactory, and the conclusions 

 eventually accepted by successive archaeologists turned out 

 to be more or less incorrect. As an example of the extra- 

 ordinary results arrived at, in an over-strained anxiety to 

 find important authentications of the sacred history in the 

 curious coins bearing Jewish emblems, it may be stated that 

 learned men of the first class, such as Scaliger, Bochard, and 

 Morin, ignorant of the ancient form of the Hebrew character, 

 thought they could read the names of Solomon, of David, 

 and many others of the Old Testament on the shekels. 

 Kircher at last succeeded in determining on a coin that had 

 been attributed to Samuel, the true inscription, " Simon, prince 

 of Israel," which was as great a step in numismatic palaeo- 

 graphy of this class, as was Grotefend's first deciphering of the 

 names of Darius and Xerxes in the inscription of Behistun, 

 towards the interpretation of the cuneatic records of Assyria. 

 Notwithstanding Kircher's successful first step in the right 

 direction, no further advance was made at that time, and, 

 in fact, until the appearance of the beautiful work of Bayer, 

 " On the Ancient Money of the Jews," many of the learned 

 numismatists of the last century were disposed to consider tho 

 coins called Jewish shekels as altogether spurious, mere 

 forgeries by dealers, manufactured for the purpose of trading 

 upon the pious credulity of worthy persons deeply interested in 

 every kind of monument seeming to support by material evi- 

 dence the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. The work of 

 Bayer, however, combined with the impetus which it gave to 

 further research, indisputably confirmed tho authenticity of the 

 ancient coins called Jewish shekels; though, at that time, 



