Posted 12/07/2010 03:48 am
It's a bronze prutah from the Roman occupied territory of Judaea from about the time of Christ. You can read TIB, the beginning of the name of Roman emperor Tiberius, at 1 to 3 o'clock in the top pic. If you're wondering what it might have looked like in better condition, there are examples on the Wildwinds website. I can't quite read the date on it, but I think it' s Year 16 (= 30 AD).
As a true-blue "Biblical Coin" and with an actual date on it from the time of the ministry of Jesus, these coins are typically more valuable than their relative common-ness would ordinarily warrant. People that sell them often hype them up as "Widow's Mites", though technically a prutah was a coin worth "two mites", or two lepta.
The other question is, of course, "is it genuine?", since many fake ones have been made for sale to tourists and pilgrims down through the ages. It's always hard to judge from pics, but I don't see any obvious signs of fakeness on this piece.
As a true-blue "Biblical Coin" and with an actual date on it from the time of the ministry of Jesus, these coins are typically more valuable than their relative common-ness would ordinarily warrant. People that sell them often hype them up as "Widow's Mites", though technically a prutah was a coin worth "two mites", or two lepta.
The other question is, of course, "is it genuine?", since many fake ones have been made for sale to tourists and pilgrims down through the ages. It's always hard to judge from pics, but I don't see any obvious signs of fakeness on this piece.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
