First Jewish Coin (Album)

The Jewish Kingdom was established by King David after the Siege of Jebus, when his armies liberated the Holy Land from foreign rule. The period from about 1010 BCE until the Babylonian conquest of 587 BCE is known as the First Temple Period. The practice of minting coins to use as currency did not emerge until after the Babylonian conquest, so there is no coinage from the First Temple Period.

The first Jewish coin was not minted until 450 years later, around 135 BCE , by John Hyrcanus I, King and High Priest of Judea. John was the first ruler of the legendary Hasmonean dynasty which restored Israel to Jewish power, giving rise to the so-called Second Temple Period.

The son of Simon Maccabaeus, John took part in the uprising against the Seleucid Empire, as described in the Biblical books of Maccabees, assuming command when his father died. Under John’s leadership, the Jews completely repelled the hated Seleucids from Judea, doubling the size of their kingdom and granting them the opportunity to mint these, the first Jewish coins.

The Second Temple Period ended when the Romans destroyed the Temple and much of Jerusalem in 70 CE, squashing the disastrous Jewish revolt. In 135 CE, the Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the ruined city, but banished Jews from living there. It wasn’t until the establishment of Israel in 1948—some two thousand years later—that the Jewish people would issue another coin.