I found a copy of Coins and Christianity by Kenneth Jacob at a Coin Show.  It was first copyrighted in 1959 but the copy I have is a later “revised and enlarged”edition from 1985.  I kind of chuckled when I read that because the book is only 5″ x 7″  and 1/2″ thick, so I wonder what was its size before it was “enlarged? ”  I was able to obtain a new looking copy for $15.

This small book covers a lot of territory. It goes from the beginning of coinage right through to the modern era in 91 pages.  The focus of the book is to explore Christian symbols as they appear on coins throughout the centuries. Since there are no Christian symbols on coins until the Battle of the Milvian Bridge the Chapter on Coins of the Bible is rather short.  I personally am not focusing my collection on this later Roman era but if this is where your collection interests lie then this book is for you. 

I did find out that Biblical Coin coin collecting was very popular in the 16th century. At that time they misidentified the Jewish First revolt coins  (circa 66-71 AD) to have been from an earlier time period (136 BC).  They minted copies of the coins and told a story that these were the coins used to pay the 30 pieces of silver to Judas. They were popularly called the “Judas Pennies.”  They are crudely made so there is no fear today that these are still on the market and seen as “authentic.”