Pre-Long Beach Auction #90

Bar Kochba Revolt. Silver Sela (14.50 g), 132-135 CE. Year 1 (132/3 CE). 'Jerusalem', tetrastyle facade of the Temple of Jerusalem; Ark of the Covenant in chest form with semicircular lid and short legs, seen from a narrow side. Reverse: 'Year one of the redemption of Israel', lulav with etrog at left. Mildenberg 3 (O1/R3); TJC 218; Hendin 1373. Very rare and an incredibly choice example of this major Judean rarity. Boldly struck on a full flan with nice wide margins on both sides. Superb Extremely Fine.

Bar Kochba Silver Sela Year 1

Most of the silver Bar Kochba coins were overstruck upon tetradrachms of Antioch commonly circulating in Judaea at that time. They served as a declaration of independence from Rome, since only sovereign entities could mint coins in silver, and in their overstriking, the rebels could simultaneously insult the emperor and make nationalistic declarations. David Hendin maintains that the inscription "First Year" had an "aggressive posture… The principal motive of the coins was both political and psychological-to make bold statements of Jewish sovereignty, whether or not it actually existed, to both Jews and Romans."

The Temple façade on the obverse has been variously described as a schematic depiction of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, or perhaps as an imaginary sketch of a rebuilt Temple to come. It has been posited that the item within the two central columns is the Ark of the Covenant, an ark holding Torah scrolls, the showbread table, or possibly a stylized generic ritual chalice.

On the reverse of the sela are represented the Four Species, the most important articles Jews utilize in the ritual observance of Sukkot, known as "The Holiday" while the Temple stood in Jerusalem.

The Four Species are here depicted as the central object, the lulav (a bundle comprised of three of the species) and, to its left, the etrog (the fourth species). The objects used in the ritual celebration of the festival of Sukkot is commanded in Leviticus 23:40-41: "You shall take for yourselves on the first day [of Sukkot] the fruit of the citron tree (etrog), the branches of the date palm (tamar), twigs of a plaited tree [myrtle] (aravot), and brook willows (hasadim)… You shall celebrate it [Sukkot] as a festival for God …[This is] an eternal decree for your generations."

After the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.), Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai (who had escaped from the besieged Jerusalem in a coffin) ordered that the ceremony of the Four Species should be carried out as a memorial to the Temple. (Mehahot 65a).
Estimated Value $60,000-UP.