AD 134/5 AR Sela (14.35g)

The 3rd Jewish War - the Bar Kokhba Revolt - was launched by the Jewish population of Judaea after the Roman Emperor Hadrian tried to Hellenize the Holy Land and banned circumcision.

It took 13 Legions, roughly one third of the entire Roman Army, three years to defeat the rebellion. During those years the rebels struck their own coinage by overstriking captured Roman denarii and provincial silver - an act of defiance literally hammered onto the coinage of the empire they were fighting.

This Sela shows the façade of the Second Temple in Jerusalem on the obverse, with the Ark of the Covenant visible between the columns and a star above (a reference to Simon "Bar Kokhba" - "Son of the Star"). The reverse depicts the lulav and etrog used in the festival of Sukkot, surrounded by the Paleo-Hebrew inscription "for the freedom of Jerusalem."

Authentic Bar Kokhba silver in problem-free AU is genuinely scarce; pedigreed examples like this one - ex Dr. Aaron Showers Collection - are how Hall of Fame coins are built.