A Jewish War year 5 shekel is valued in excess of $125,000 ahead of a sale at Ira & Larry Goldberg Auctioneers.
The lot is one of very few silver shekels struck towards the end of the First Revolt (AD 66-70), which saw the Jews of Judea rise up against the Roman Empire.
 The year 5 shekel was minted just before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 |
It was minted in just a few months before the siege of Jerusalem ended (year 5 refers to April-August AD 70) and the Romans sacked the city.
Production of the silver shekel continued up until the end (even after all other coin production ceased) so that citizens could continue to pay the half-shekel temple tax as ordered in the book of Exodus.
The auction house comments: "According to the Menorah Coin Project, our coin is one of only ten known which share this obverse die, the same die as found on all of the Year 5 shekels excavated at the mountain-top fortress of Masada, thus making a total of only 12 examples from all known dies…
"After the war, it was forbidden to use coins of the revolt, so the shekels were melted down into ingots, for their silver value."
The sale will take place in Los Angeles on February 2-3.
You can check out our selection of coins for sale by clicking here.
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