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.