The First Jewish Shekels. 345 



recent excavations. Most of these are only casts or electro- 

 types from the real coins, having a certain interest as trne 

 copies, bnt not to be paid for as originals. It may also be 

 interesting to exhibit an engraved specimen of the clumsy 

 forgeries of Jewish coins which deceived the numismatic 

 amateurs of the last generation, and for which purchasers 

 are still found among the unwary. The specimen engraved 

 (Fig. 11) belongs to the Messrs. Groombridge, who have kindly 

 lent it for this occasion. 



The examination of the obverse alone will be sufficient 

 to exhibit the wretchedness of such attempts at falsification. 

 The type is a vase of quite modern fashion, the handles and 

 other parts being ornamented in the most paltry style of the 

 last century, instead of having the severely simple character of 

 the Omer of the ancient shekels (engraving No. 1), which it is 

 intended to imitate. The smoke or incense issuing from it, 

 a, most unmeaning addition, is also treated in a fiat, unartistic, 

 and modern feeling. But the great and fatal mistake of the 

 forger is the inscription, " Shekel Ishrael," in which the modern 

 .Hebrew letters are used instead of those of the ancient alphabet, 

 which was always employed for monumental and other public 

 purposes in Judaea, especially for the coinage, even after 

 the later kind of writing had been long generally prevalent 

 jas the popular style. Some of these forgeries have been 

 made to bear the name of Solomon, David, or even Samuel, 

 though it is well known that no Jewish coin of any kind 

 was issued previous to the epoch of Alexander the Great, 

 several centuries after the time of Solomon; and that no 

 Jewish coins bearing the name of a prince or high priest were 

 issued till the comparatively late period of the Maccabees. 



Mauy other coins, illustrative of Judsean history, might 

 easily have been added to those described above, were it not 

 that the article has already assumed dimensions of far greater 

 extent than was originally intended. 



