Help Indentify This Coin Please

Thanks a lot for the information. We have been wondering for years what this coin was. Any information on it would be more than we know now. I look forward to any more help. Thanks again.

-Sam

Scoutjim has the ID of this coin down just fine - Jewish First Revolt, shekel, year 2 (the year characters are the ones above the cup) or 68/9 AD. The designs are the cup and a bunch of pomegranates. Here's the Wildwinds reference for Ancient Jewish coins.

So that's what it appears to be. The question now becomes, "Is it real?"

Real Jewish shekels are both rare and expensive - current catalogue price is over 1000 British pounds for the commonest varieties. Even back in 1950 they weren't the sort of thing to be given away lightly. Archaeologically, they're rarely found outside of Israel.

Is there anything about this particular coin that makes me think it might be fake? well, I must say the edge looks suspicious. I'm not familiar with what this particular series is supposed to look like, but compared with other ancients I have of the period, it looks too even and too thick.

The style, however, looks genuine enough. These coins have been widely copied for centuries, and sold as souvenirs to pilgrims to the holy land. Sometimes the copies are fairly realistic, others look crude and/or get parts of the design wrong. There are also a series of "coins" known as "false shekels", apparently used in certain Jewish and Masonic rituals.


This is a typical false shekel. Note the differences: the date-characters above the cup have evolved into bubbling steam, the pomegranates have evolved into Aaron's Rod with almond buds and the lettering is somewhat garbled and more modern Hebrew in shape rather than the ancinet forms used on your coin.

Well, I'm suspicious of it, for the reasons outlined above. For more opinions, you can try posting it over on FORVM Ancient Coins - there are lots of knowledable ancients experts over there.

If you prefer "face to face" authentication, your options are to either take it to a dealer in ancient coins (normally your typical non-specialist dealer probably does't have a clue about ancients), or send it to an authentication/certification service. Both these options might cost money, so I'd only recommend this if you get some positive responses from the forums.