The beginnings of Judaean Coinage

There were, in effect, two beginnings of Judaean coinage, the first towards the end of Achaemenid Persian rule in the Levant, in the late 5th century BCE. This run of coin production ended in the mid-3rd century BCE, during Ptolemaic rule. The second sequence of Judaean coins began more than a century later, under the Hasmonaeans, initially under the patronage to the Seleucid monarch, Antiochus VII Euergetes (Sidetes). The Hasmonaean coins end with the overthrow of Antigonus Mattathias in 37 BCE by Herod (the Great). These two phases of coin issues are widely different in character. These differences are examined and some of the historical insights that they provide are discussed.