03.27.09
Biblical Coin Exhibit
This exhibit came about from my pondering a simple question. “What coins could possibly be on the table of the Moneychangers?” Some Scripture scholars would place this event at about 28AD so I used that as my starting point when seeking to find out what coins could be in circulation in Judea around this date.
One must also take into account the religious custom of the journey to the Temple in Jerusalem each year, or at least once in a lifetime. Now this adds the possibility of coins from all over the Roman Empire ending up on the tables. In the end I focused on a few samples from the following general categories, though these represent a mere fraction of what coins could potentially be present.
General categories: Hasmonean coins, Herodian coins, Roman Prefect/Procurator coins, Roman regular issue coins and of course the Shekels of Tyre (the key coin as to why the moneychangers are even there). This list could be expanded to include both Ptolemaic and Seleucid coins, but at this time I have not added them to the exhibit.
03.23.09
Biblical Coin Exhibit/March 29th Annapolis, MD
On March 29, 2009 a selection of ancient coins from the Redemptorist Biblical Coin Collection will be on display at the Charles Carroll House in Annapolis, Maryland from 12:00 noon until 5:00 PM. The Carroll House is located at 107 Duke of Gloucester St. The exhibit features coins that could possibly be on the moneychangers table in 28AD. Also as part of the display is a Herodian oil lamp and a ring from a soldier of the Roman 10th Legion.
The exhibit features a handmade oil painting reproduction of the “Purification of the Temple” by Jacopo Bassano. Below “the moneychanger” (in the painting) there are a dozen ancient coins (Roman & Judean) in a display case.
A group of six young people have been trained as docents and will be dressed as first century moneychangers. They will guide visitors through the exhibit, give a short presentation and answer questions. This is part of a service project for their school.
The exhibit will be also be available for viewing weekend afternoons June, July and August, the normal Charles Carroll House summer visiting hours.
03.22.09
Quadrans: Tiberius/Altar (14AD)
We now move to a quadrans of Tiberius, in fact one of the first ones that will be minted during his reign. Here we have another altar symbol on the reverse of this coin. I will use it to make mention of a Roman practice of having a meal from the animal that was sacrificed to the god(s). There were specific parts of the animal that had to be offered and thus fully burnt, but there were other parts of the animal that could be offered as food to those present. This will be a helpful tradition for the Christian preachers when speaking with Roman citizens about the Eucharist (or the Breaking of the Bread) as both a “sacrifice” and a “meal.”
Ruler: Tiberius
Date: 14/15 AD
Denomination: Quadrans
Obverse: Tiberius
Reverse: Altar
Reference: Sear 1773
03.20.09
Quadrans: Augustus/Altar (5BC)
This Augustus quadrans shows a bowl shaped altar. Worship of various deities was important for the lives of the Romans. From a leadership point of view it would provide unity in the Empire since all had to worship the Roman gods. But there was also a custom of allowing conquered lands to keep their own deities too. The purpose of this was to allow the local population to keep some of their traditions while under Roman rule and not add more reasons for them to want to revolt. This mandate to worship Roman gods will of course be a major problem for early Christians. Sometimes the local Roman leadership would look the other way when Christians did not participate and at other times there were persecutions.
Ruler: Augustus
Date: 5BC
Denomination: Quadrans
Obverse: Altar
Reverse: SC
Reference: Sear 1699v
03.19.09
Quadrans: Augustus/Clasping Hands (9BC)
This is a quadrans of Augustus. It is minted in the year 9BC, so about three years before what we now believe to be the actual year of Jesus’ birth (6BC). The obverse (front) of this coin shows hands clasping. This is a symbol of the “trust” that people in the Roman Empire are to have in one another. It is this call to be trusting of others in the Empire that will help Christianity spread quickly because people could travel relatively freely from place to place. This type coin would have been in use during the first century as people heard the Widow’s Mite text.
Ruler: Augustus
Date: 9BC
Denomination: Quadrans
Obverse: Clasping Hands
Reverse: SC
Reference: Sear 1693
03.18.09
Quadrans Reference: Roman Coins & their Values (David Sear)
In the following section of posts I will be switching reference books. Previously I was using David Hendin’s reference “Guide to Biblical Coins, 4th edition, to identify the coins. Now I will be using David Sear’s book “Roman Coins and Their Values: Millennium Edition, Vol One.” The abbreviation I will use for this book will be “Sear.” But you may come across some dealers who will use “RCV” for this book. There are actually many reference books when it comes to identifying Roman Coins so the same coin can be recognized in multiple ways. The particular Sear’s reference that I will be using deals with coins of the Roman Republic and the Twelve Caesars (280BC – 96AD). It will be Roman Coins from this era that will best suite our needs.
You may come across some other reference abbreviations when examining an ancient coin and here are a few of the more common.
ERIC Rasiel Suarez, Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coins
RIC H. Mattingly, E. Sydenham and others, The Roman Imperial Coinage
RSC H.A. Seaby, Roman Silver Coins
RRC M.H. Crawford, Roman Republic Coinage
03.17.09
It’s a coin just like a “Quadrans!” (Mk 12:42)
Months ago I ended my discussion of the Widow’s Mite with two lists of possible coins. There were those which had a high probability of being the type coin that was actually used by the widow that day in the Temple and a few “longshots.” Now I would like to broaden the discussion. Besides asking the question “What are possibilities for the actual coin used?” we can ask another question. “What types of coins did people of the first century think about when they heard this passage?”
For example if I wanted to explain the passage to you today I would not make my first immediate reference to a “prutah” or a “lepton,” which were the coin denominations that were available to the widow. I would first refer to a “penny” because in the USA it is the smallest denomination coin that is in my pocket today.
Why I mention this is because in Mark 12:42 we find it says “But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins (leptons), which equal a quadrans coin.” And the reasons it says this is that the bible story is now being told outside of the land of Judea and at different locations within the Roman Empire. These listeners are not familiar with “leptons” or “prutahs” and so the Gospel writer (or verbal tradition) adds this notation about “quadrans” to help people understand about the coin and therefore about the passage of Scripture. For that reason the next few posts will explore some of the various “quadrans” coins circulating during the years the Scriptures were being repeated and eventually written down.
03.16.09
The “Quadrans” are coming!
I have not written for a while because I was working on two projects that are now ready to go!
Project #1 was to begin to collect Roman coins called Quadrans. I will explain in my upcoming posts why these should be considered a continuation of the Widows Mite discussion I was doing a few months ago.
Project #2 was to design, and have built, an exhibit of Biblical Coins. This exhibit is now in place, will open March 29, 2009 and I will also explain more about this, along with its location, in my upcoming posts.
So we now have a lot a material to cover and I hope you enjoy. I will also be updating my Introduction page and add some more places to visit on my Blogroll. Well, I have much to do to get this all going so let me get to work! I need to prepare some nice photos to go along with all this!
