Show ancient jewish coins found to be of historical value an exhibit of ancient jewish coins symbolic of the period displayed at a jewish theological seminary in new york recently presented an interesting insight into the customs and laws of that early oay day the coins struck in the two centuries preceding and following the start of the christian era are of silver gold and copper they are of two classifications those struck by the jews themselves and those minted by their various roman governors because jewish law forbids the use of graven images there are few portrait heads in the collection the most common deco decorative decolati rati ve motifs are sacred objects the bufi jur the palm branch the citron the hojny tabernacle trumpet the menorah and the palm tree the last a symbol of plenty in palestine there is little of artistic merit in the collection apparently the coins were strictly utilitarian for the jews who coined coined them wasted little time displayed at the jewish theological beautiful many of them have been struck over old roman coins and in their haste the jewish craftsmen failed to ablit erate the roman inscriptions the speed with which these coins were made is demonstrated in some instances by imperfect imprint some of these imprint ings cover only half the face of the old roman coins coins of the revolutionary period bear the hebrew inscription to the freedom of jerusalem and the date 1 2 3 or 4 corresponding to the year of the revolt in the second group of coins those struck by the roman governors much of historical value is revealed many of the bear profile portraits of vespasian or titus in whose reigns they were struck off many of the coins issued by the roman procurators pro curators of palestine show a jewish influence these coins do not bear the roman initials S C since they were struck without the authority of the senate and merely at the emperors command this was possible since palestine remained an imperial province some of the coins were embellished with reproductions of inanimate creatures instead of the reigning caesar |