In the middle ages the coin shown below was misunderstood to be the face of Jesus. I have come across the two stories.  One story is that both the rays that run from the head, and the rose on the reverse, were thought to be symbolic of the resurrected Jesus.  The second story that I heard is that the rays coming from the head were thought to be the crown of thorns and that these coins were the ones given to Judas as the 30 pieces of silver.  Why they thought the Romans would mint a special coin for Judas I do not know but such was the medieval mind!

In actually this coin is not Roman and it was minted long before the time Jesus walked the earth.  It is a coin that was minted in Caria, Rhodes and is of the god Helios. The rays from the head stood for the sun because he was the sun god.  The rose on the reverse was also a symbol referring to Helios.  The coin is shown here is actually very small and weighs only 1.17grams. When the medieval stories were circulating the denomination of the coin they were referring to was much larger, a tetradrachm, which was about the size and weight of a shekel. (+/- 13 grams) There are various styles of these coins because they were minted over a long period of time

City: Caria, Rhodes

Date: 166 – 88 BC

Denomination: Hemidrachm

Obverse: Radiate head of Helios

Reverse: Rose bud