BLACK AND SILVER SMOKEY EYE

Jewish War. 66-70 AD. Shekel, 14.08g. . , Year 5, 21 March-4 August, 70 AD. Obv: Ritual cup with pearled rim, the base is raised by projections on ends; paleo-Hebrew around (shekel of Israel) and date (year 5) above the cup. Rx: Stem with pearled bottom and three pomegranates; paleo-Hebrew around (Jerusalem the holy). Hendin 671a. TJC 215a. As Struck.

This is the rarest of the shekels of the Jewish War. It is dated to the fifth and final year, which began on the first day of the Jewish month of Nisan (March 21, AD 70) until the Jewish Temple was destroyed on the seventh of the Jewish month of Ab (August 4, AD 70). According to The Menorah Coin Project, only 24 examples of shekels from the fifth year are known to exist. They were struck from four obverse and five reverse dies. The style of this coin is somewhat irregular, however, irregular shekels from the first and fourth years are well known and one obverse die of the fourth year shares many design traits with this coin, and appears to have been engraved by the same hand. (Goldstein, I and Fontanille, J.P., "A New Study of the Coins of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome 66-70 C.E." ANA Journal (1, 2) 2006: 25, Fig. 11 for photographs of the year 1 and year 4 coins mentioned above.) This coin was one of a group of 13 year five shekels discovered in the 1980s in the vault of the famous numismatic London firm of Baldwin's with a note from an unknown person who, at the beginning of the century, thought the coins were forgeries. The entire group had been cleaned. The shekels were all struck from a single pair of dies—the very same set of dies that struck an example, previously thought to be unique, of the year 5 shekel in the British Museum (BM 20), which had been acquired in 1887. I have personally examined the coin in the British museum on multiple occasions, and its reverse is covered with silver chloride typical of many uncleaned shekels of the Jewish War. This, along with other diagnostic factors, proves the authenticity of the specimen in the British Museum, and it is not possible that the additional 13 examples were replicated from it. In fact, all of the 13 known coins differ in strike, and display different aspects of centering, corrosion artifacts, and die cracks. One of these 13 coins was acquired for the collection of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Prof. Ya'akov Meshorer. Our coin was perhaps the best example in the group of 13, and for that reason it was sold almost immediately, so was not one of the 12 other examples that were subjected to scientific investigation by both the British Museum and the Hebrew University. The study is reported in the Israel Numismatic Journal 9 (1986-1987), "The Application of SEM for Authentication of An Important Find of Year Five Shekels of The Jewish War," Kreindler, H. pp 38-45. Another interesting aspect of this group is that earlier shekels, as well as other year 5 shekels, are struck in vertical die positions, which suggests they were struck from fixed dies. The die axes of this group, however, are more varied, suggesting they were struck from loose dies. Interestingly, the phenomenon also occurs near the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and according to the INJ article cited above this was probably because these were struck while "Jerusalem was under siege by Titus and the Roman army, this could have been the last issue, made under trying circumstances, perhaps at a make-shift minting location. This could account for both the slightly different style and epigraphy of this issue, leading to the conclusion that properly aligned dies were not available."--DH.

Gemini6, 320

Gold and silver, Early Hellenistic, ca. 275-250 B.C.E., Allegedly from Egypt
Weight: 180 g.; L. 6.4 cm.

The protomes hammered and fashioned from a lump of gold and fitted over the wider end of the hoops, the latter made by winding gold wire over a long horn-like core. The heads themselves considerably cold-worked: chiselled, chased, punched, with decorative elements added of plain and beaded gold wire and beaded spirals annealed on. On the foreheads a small calyx with beaded rim to receive an inset - glass or precious stone - and the eyes hollow for inlay. A thick gold loop under the lower jaw of the bulls to allow insertion of the narrow end of the hoop, here composed of strands of wire annealed together.

The necklace a chain of silver links (?).

Condition: hoops slightly bent with a slight crush on each. Inlays missing. The necklace now a lump of silver and silver chloride. Traces of wool thread (visible under a microscope).

Hoop ear-rings of this type appeared in the second half of the 4th century B.C. and most of the earliest that come from dated contexts were found in Macedonia and Tarentum [1]. They became popular throughout the Greek world during the Hellenistic period. The earliest ones had lion protomes, later other animal heads and humans - Negro heads, maenads and sometimes half figures - are represented. The bull headed examples would appear to be a Ptolemaic speciality since most have been found on Cyprus and in Egypt. An important jewellery hoard with several very similar specimens was found in the ruined temple at Toukh el-Qarmous (Egypt) [2], destroyed around 240 B.C., which gives a dating of around 270-240 B.C.

The traces of wool may suggest they were once placed in a little bag or wrapped in cloth for safe-keeping.







1 Deppert-Lippitz, B.: Griechischer Goldschmuck. Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt vol. 27 (Mainz, 1985),
p. 222 ff.

2 Pfrommer, M.: Untersuchungen zur Chronologie fruh- und hochhellenistischen Goldschmucks, IstForsch 37, 1990,
pp. 162-168, 208-209, 390-397.

Text from the website of George Ortiz.