Coin from ‘The Holy Jerusalem’

Stand for Israel  |  August 2, 2023

Archaeologists never run out of places to explore in the Holy Land, nor do they run out of amazing biblical artifacts to find. The latest, reports The Jerusalem Post’s Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, is a Jewish coin found near the location of the Dead Sea Scrolls, inscribed with the name of the Holy City of Jerusalem on its face:

The coin, dated to 66/67 CE when the Second Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, was found in the Judean Desert Survey led by the Israel Antiquities Authority together with the Heritage Ministry and the staff officer of the Civil Administration Archaeology Unit in Judea and Samaria carried out over the last six years with the aim of retrieving these ancient finds before the antiquity looters. 

Recently, in the course of examining every cave and crack in the rock, Israel Antiquities Authority inspectors reached a cliff in a wadi near En Gedi when they came across the coin on the ground at the entrance of one of the caves…

On one side of the coin, “The Holy Jerusalem” appears – the word “Holy” spelled without a vowel, reflecting the development of the writing on the coins that appeared later on in the Revolt as “The Holy Jerusalem” with the vowel. Three pomegranates are depicted on the center of the coin – a familiar symbol as it was adopted on the old Israeli lira coin that was currency in the State of Israel until 1980. 

On the other side of the coin, a chalice (goblet) is depicted, above which the letter “Aleph” appears marking the first year of the outbreak of the Revolt and the value “Half-Shekel.” The chalice is a characteristic symbol on Jewish coins in currency towards the end of the Second Temple period…