Important Gamla Rebel Issue

Triton XIX, Lot: 307. Estimate $30000. Sold for $21000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUDAEA, Jewish War. 66-70 CE. Æ (20mm, 7.62 g). Gamla mint. Struck circa 66-67 BC. Omer cup surrounded by crude paleo-Hebrew or Aramaic legend / Circular crude paleo-Hebrew or Aramaic legend. Meshorer 217; Kadman –; Hendin 1372 (same dies as illustration); Bromberg 390 (same dies); Shoshana –; Sofaer –; Spaer –. Crude VF for type, desert patina. Very rare.

The excavations at Gamla yielded seven examples of this unusual coin. The Menorah Coin Project lists a total of nine examples from one obverse and two reverse dies. This coin was struck from reverse die 1. All of the coins are crudely made, reflecting the reality that Gamla had no skilled artisans to engrave or strike coins. Gamla lies in the central Golan Heights and was described by Josephus as a town that was a stronghold of Jews early in the Jewish War, but Romans, led by Vespasian and Titus, conquered Gamla on October 20, 67 AD. The Gamla coin was obviously inspired by the Jewish War silver shekels of Jerusalem; however, the crudeness of the inscriptions make them difficult to read. Meshorer (TJC p. 131) first read the inscription as "for the redemption of" on the obverse and "holy Jerusalem" on the reverse. Farhi (in INJ 15) later read the obverse as "Gamla [year] 2.”

According to Yoav Arbel, “[t]he benefits of this modest coin surpass its local significance, [it] is possibly the only item that offers us a glimpse into the ideology that guided a provincial rebel authority far from the provisional government in Jerusalem (which would probably have disapproved of its minting if asked.” ("The Gamla Coin: A New Perspective on the Circumstances and Date of its Minting,” in D. Miano and S. Malena eds., Milk and Honey, Essays on ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1957), pp. 257-75.)