The First Jewish Shekels. 329 



fraudulent imitations were known to be produced by dis- 

 honest dealers, as they still are, in considerable numbers. 



The general conclusion arrived at with regard to the attribu- 

 tion of these Jewish shekels, after the undoubted proof of the 

 authenticity of genuine specimens, was, that they all belonged 

 to a short period forming the early part of the reign of 

 Simon Maccabeeus ; he being, it was asserted, the first of 

 the Asmomean rulers who coined money, in accordance with 

 the concession granted for that purpose by the Syrian king 

 Antiochus VI., after the successful revolt against the Greco- 

 Syrian rule.* The coins bearing the inscriptions, "Simon, 

 prince of Israel," " The first year of the deliverance of Israel," 

 ec The second year," etc. etc., seemed to bear out this general 

 view, and many discrepancies were therefore overlooked. For 

 instance, the exceedingly different style of workmanship which 

 distinguished different coins bearing Jewish symbols, was not 

 sufficiently dwelt upon, nor was the weight and size of two or 

 three distinct kinds of silver pieces sufficiently attended to. 

 The first series of suggestions for a reformation of the old 

 classification, was due to the able French archeeologist, M. Le 

 Norman ; suggestions which M. De Saulcy has since success- 

 fully carried out in detail. 



The best method of describing the present state of our nu- 

 mismatic knowledge in the attribution of the Jewish series of 

 coins (which are now on all hands allowed to be of unquestion- 

 able authenticity) will be to take a summary view of Jewish 

 history from the time of Alexander the Great, about 333 B.C., 

 to the suppression of the Jewish revolt against the power of 

 Rome in the reign of Trajan, about 135 a.d., describing the 

 coins of each period according to the present system of attri- 

 bution. It is well known that, up to the time of Alexander 

 the Great, the Jews, carrying out in all things the highly con- 

 servative character of their constitution, had never adopted 

 the use of coined money, but still continued to conduct money 

 transactions by weighing the amount of silver paid over in 

 ingots, or smaller pieces, as in the days of the patriarchs. 

 At the period of Alexander's invasion of Asia, the Jews 

 were subject to the kings of Persia., and paid heavy tribute 

 to Darius ; but after the battle of Issus, and the signal defeat 

 of the Persian army, Alexander sent a summons to Yad- 

 dous, then high priest of Jerusalem, to pay to him the tribute 

 formerly rendered to the Persian king, and also to send him 

 provisions and reinforcements. These demands were refused ; 

 probably from a belief that the reverses suffered by the Persian 

 king were only of a temporary nature. But when, after the 



* This remark, of course, does not refer to the small later coins belonging to 

 Herod and his race. 



