A Dissertation on the Hebrew Coins

WE have elsewhere treated of the Antiquity of the Jewish coined Money¹; and we have attempted to prove, that the Custom of making it of a certain Form, of a certain Alloy, and of a certain determinate Value, is not so ancient as the generality of Mankind imagine: That it was but lately coined in this manner by the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans: That it does not appear that the ancient Egyptians had Coins of Gold or Silver before the Ptolemys: That several Nations have them not, even to this day: And that the Hebrews probably had them not before the Government of Simon Maccabeus.

We propose here to discourse of such Hebrew Coins and Medals, as are preserved in several Collections, and about which so many different Opinions have been form’d. We shall here examine them, and shall form our own Sentiments thereon, in such manner as to us shall seem most probable.

The Hebrew Medals are of two kinds; some have Inscriptions in Samaritan Characters, others in Hebrew or Assyrian Letters, such as the Jews commonly make use of at this day. And as the Learned are divided in their Opinions, about the Antiquity of these two sorts of Characters, it will be necessary, before we handle the present Subject, to say something upon this celebrated Question, which has been treated of such a multitude of Times.

Many Jews pretend, as well as some christian Criticks², that the Hebrew Letters that we find in our present Bibles, have been always in use among the Jews, at least since Moses’s time, and that they have never varied in this matter. To prove which they affirm, that this Nation, who were always obstinately attached to their old Usages, would never consent to forsake their old Letters, or to make the least change in their sacred Books. That the Affair will appear to be still more impossible if we consider, that this People was dispersed all over the World, at that time in which it is pretended that Esdras introduced this Change. That the Samaritans, to whom the Honour is ascribed of preserving the old Hebrew Characters, in use from the time of Moses, were but a handful of People in comparison of the Hebrews, who were infinitely more numerous, and farther dispersed. Besides, they were very opposite to the Jews, always hated them, and would have no correspondence with them. To this is added, that Coins are produced belonging to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua; and ancient Inscriptions are refer’d to, that are to be seen upon the Sepulchres of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which are in the present Hebrew Characters. That in the Tables of the Law, engraven by the Finger of God, and deliver’d to Moses, the Letters were perforated in such a manner, that the final Mem ,םand the Samech ,סwere supported by nothing, but remained miraculously suspended, without any where adhering to the Stone. From hence it is concluded, that the Hebrew Characters, which the Jews now use, are as old as their Nation.

As to the Hebrew Coins and Medals, whose Inscriptions are in square Characters like those of our Bibles; to support the truth of their having been struck in the most flourishing Times of the Jewish Monarchy, it is affirm’d, that their Credit cannot be invalidated but by superficial Reasonings, and by supposing the matter in question; that is, that the present Hebrew Characters have only been in use since the Return from the Captivity³, and that the Coins we are speaking of, are modern: which is just what they deny, and what ought to be substantially proved.

They, in their turn, call in question such Coins as are stamp’d with Inscriptions in the Samaritan Character, which is pretended to have been the ancient Hebrew Character. These Coins, as they affirm, could not be struck since the Return from the Captivity, because then, as their Adversaries own, the pretended ancient Hebrew Character, or the Samaritan, was no longer in use among the Jews. Neither were they struck before the Captivity, the Inscriptions to be read thereon are a full proof of this. On one side we find these Words: Jerusalem the holy; on the other, The Shekel of Israel. But they did not begin to speak of Israel, as distinguished from Judah, till after the Schism of Jeroboam; and then Jerusalem was not the holy City, in the Style of the Kingdom of Israel, or of the ten Tribes, since the Israelites, or Subjects of the Kings of Israel, did not repair thither as before, to pay their Worship to the Lord. These Coins, therefore, are to be consider’d as spurious, or at least are much to be suspected of being counterfeit. Thus they argue who maintain, that the ancient Hebrew Letters were the same as are still in use at this day.

But those, on the contrary, who assert, that the present Samaritan Letters are the ancient Hebrew and Phenician Characters, and that the Coins, whose Inscriptions are in this Character, are the only true Hebrew Coins, support their Opinion by these Arguments. Origen⁴, St. Jerom⁵, Eusebius of Cæsarea⁶, Venerable Bede⁷, as also the greatest part of our more skilful Criticks assure us, that after the Return from the Captivity, Esdras introduced the use of the Chaldee or Assyrian Letters, which the Jews still make use of, instead of the ancient Samaritan or Phenician Letters, which were in use before. Origen observes⁸, that even in his time the most ancient Hebrew Copies still read the ineffable Name of God, Jehovah, in the ancient Samaritan Letters, and not in the common Hebrew Characters; probably because of that profound Respect which the Jewish Copyists had for that adorable Name, which they scrupled to pronounce, or so much as to transcribe in any other Letters than those, in which it was originally written by Moses. St. Jerom, in his Preface to the Books of Kings, informs us, that the Samaritans preserve the Pentateuch of Moses written in Hebrew, in as many Letters as the Jews, but in different Characters: For it is certain, adds he, that Esdras, the famous Scribe and Doctor of the Law, after the Return from the Captivity, and the Rebuilding of the Temple, found out, and brought into use, the Hebrew Letters we now make use of; whereas, till that time, the Hebrew and Samaritan Letters were the same. Samaritani Pentateuchum Mosis totidem litteris scriptitant, figuris tantum et apicibus discrepantes. Certum est Esdram——alias litteras reperisse quibus nunc utimur; cum ad illud usque tempus, iidem Samaritanorum et Hebræorum characteres fuerint. The same Origen⁹, and St. Jerom , writing upon that Passage of Ezekiel, where it is said, that the Angel stamp’d a Tau upon the Forehead of those who were to be preserved out of the Hands of the destroying Angel, observe, that in the time of Ezekiel, and before the Captivity of Babylon, the Tau of the Hebrews had the Shape of a Cross; and in effect, this is what appears from the Samaritan Medals, and from the ancient Samaritan Alphabet.

Some have endeavour’d to reconcile these two Opinions we have now been speaking of (). They will have the Law to have been given to Moses in Assyrian Characters, or in the square Hebrew Letter. That afterwards, as a Punishment of their Sins, this Character was changed into the Canaanitish or Phenician Writing, which is that of the modern Samaritans; and that, finally, Esdras restored the first Character. But these pretended Changes have no foundation in History; and what probably has engaged these learned Men to be of this Opinion, is, that they were persuaded the Medals we now behold with Inscriptions in Samaritan Characters, were stamp’d in the Times of the Kings of Judah and Israel, under whom these Letters were in use. In effect, if we believe Conringius, till the Year 1675, when he wrote his Paradoxes upon the Hebrew Coins, the generality of learned Men took these Pieces for genuine Money, struck in the Times of Samuel, David, and Solomon. Villalpandus, and Kircher, read Samuel upon them, instead of Simon. The Rabbin Bartenora¹⁰, who pretends the Israelites made use of the Samaritan Character in profane Affairs, such as Money, asserts that these Pieces were coin’d in the Times of the Kings of Israel; and the Rabbin Azarias affirms¹¹, who had seen some of these Pieces of Money, that he had observed upon them the Abbreviations of the Shekel of David, and Jerusalem the Holy. From whence it was natural to conclude, that these Shekels, or Demi-shekels, were struck under David.

But our more skilfull Antiquaries believe, with good reason, that the Letters Shin and Daleth, which the Jewish Doctors took for the first Letters of the Shekel of David, are to express the fourth Year of the Deliverance of the Israelites from the Yoke of the Heathen. And indeed we find many of this sort, some of which are an Abridgment of the first, or second, or fourth Year of the Deliverance of Israel; which agree perfectly well with the Epoch of the Freedom of the Jews, from their Servitude to the Greeks, which happened in the Year 170 of the Seleucidæ, as we shall take notice hereafter.

Other learned Men maintain, as Genebrard in his Chronicon¹², and Vaserus¹³, after Rabbin Moses of Gironne, that the Change which happen’d to the Hebrew Letters, is much older than Esdras; and that from the very beginning of the Separation of the ten Tribes under Jeroboam, the Hebrews of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who retain’d their Fidelity to the House of David, did purposely change the Form of the ancient Characters, and adopted those they make use of to this day, that they might have no correspondence with the Israelites of the ten Tribes.

Eusebius, in his Chronicon¹⁴, of the Edition of Pontac, ascribes the same Motive to Esdras, when he changed the Characters of his Nation. But as this Circumstance is not to be met with in the Greek of Eusebius, nor in several Latin Manuscripts, this Reason ought no more to affect Esdras at the Return from the Captivity, than it before affected the latter Kings of Judah. Besides, the Cana-anitish Tongue and Character being originally the same as those of the Hebrews and Samaritans, Moses and the Patriarchs, the Judges and Kings of the People of God, ought, at the begining, to have renounced their Language and Character, to avoid having any correspondence with them. But this would have been absurd and impossible; and, besides, would have involved them in greater Inconveniencies, than those they would have endeavour’d to avoid.

Lastly, there is still a Jewish Opinion upon this matter, contrived also to reconcile the two Sentiments we have proposed . Those that maintain it think, that among the Jews there were always two sorts of Characters, the one was only us’d in the sacred Writings, and were the Hebrew Letters we have at this Day. The profane was us’d in the ordinary Affairs of Life, and in whatsoever had not any immediate relation to Religion. This was the Samaritan or Phenician Character.

This Pretence is insupportable, if taken in the Latitude they would give it. It cannot be shewn, by any Passage of Scripture, or of the Jewish History, that there obtain’d any thing like this double Set of Characters; one for sacred Uses, and the other for profane; one for Matters of Religion, and the other for Civil Polity. But it is very probable, that since the Captivity, and since the Change that happen’d in the Writing of the Jews by means of Esdras, there were two sorts of Characters in use among the Jews of Palestine, one that was confin’d to their own Nation; and to the writing of their holy Books, which was the Assyrian Character, the Square Hebrew, which they still generally use to this day; the other, which may be call’d the Hand for Trade and¹⁵ Commerce, which was us’d in Judea, Phenicia, and Samaria, which was the antient Hebrew Character, the Phenician, Canaanitish, and Samaritan, such as we find upon the Coins of the Tyrians, or those of the Jews, and in the sacred Books of the Samaritans. The Tyrians put upon their Money the Greek and Phenician Language; the Jews, at the beginning, put upon theirs only the Phenician or Samaritan Character; but afterwards, under the Herods, they engraved the Greek Character upon it. In their sacred Books they only us’d the Hebrew or Assyrian Letters.

The Opinion that prevails most at this day is¹⁶, that the Samaritan Character is the ancient Hebrew Character in use among the Jews from the time of Moses, and that this Character did not cease to be in common use among the Jews till after the time of Esdras. That the Hebrew Medals, engraved with such Letters as the modern Jews make use of in their Bibles, are spurious; and that those which have Inscriptions in Samaritan Characters, were struck in the time of Simon Maccabeus. And that certain Letters mark’d thereon, as Shin and Aleph, Shin and Beth, Shin and Daleth, denote Years, the first, second, or fourth of their Deliverance from the Subjection they were under to the Kings of Syria; which we shall now explain a little more at large.

The Medals with Inscriptions in modern Hebrew Letters, on one side represent the Heads of Abraham, or Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Esther, Mordecai, and even of Jesus Christ, Abraham is represented thereon like a venerable old Man, with a Calf on the Reverse. Moses is engraved with Horns, pretty much as the Greeks represent Alexander the Great. The Medals of Joshua have a Bull on one side, and on the other side an Unicorn. David appears thereon with his Bag or Scrip, and on the Reverse is to be seen a Tower. In those of Mordecai we see on one side the Sack-cloth and Ashes, and on the other a Crown. Others are to be seen, which on one side have a smoaking Censer, with the words, Schekel Israel, and on the other a Branch of an Almond-tree, or of some other Tree, and the Words, Jerusalem Hakkadoscha, Jerusalem the Holy. The Inscriptions of the other Medals bear the Names of the Patriarchs, or some Passage of Scripture; for example, on the Reverse of that of Moses are read these Hebrew Words, You But the greatest Connoisseurs in this shall have no other Gods before me. kind of Learning maintain, that setting aside the Character and Inscription, these Coins or Medals afford an evident Token of Novelty, by their Goût, their Metal, their Figure; things well known to Antiquaries, that depend upon much Experience, the Knowledge of which is not acquired but by frequent examination of such kind of Pieces. Besides, the antient Hebrews did not represent any Figures of Men, or Beasts, upon their Money or Medals; and we are assured, that it is not above two hundred Years ago that these kind of Pieces were first seen; and we are told, that the greatest part of them were coined in Holstein. In a word, there is hardly any body that is not convinced of their Falsity. Therefore we shall not waste more time in proving them to be suppositious.

But it is not so with those that have Inscriptions in the Samaritan Character: They are certainly antique, and have all the Marks of being such. All the Learned, except Sperlingius¹⁷, a Danish Councellor, acknowledge their Truth and Authenticity; and such as have but the least Taste for this kind of Relicks, cannot miss observing a certain Air of Truth and Antiquity in them, which cannot be counterfeited. Father Souciet, a Jesuit, tells us, in his Dissertation upon the Hebrew Medals¹⁸, that he had seen one over-struck, as he speaks, with a Coin of the Emperour Trajans, and consequently more ancient than that Emperour. They are often found among the Ruins of Jerusalem, and in other places of Palestine; and their Number, now in Europe, is not inconsiderable.

The Letters that are to be seen upon these Medals, are not intirely of the modern Samaritan Character, but of a more ancient Letter, squarer, and less of a Running-Hand than that that may be observed in the Manuscripts, and printed Books; the Samaritans, as well as other Nations, having rounded their Letters by degrees, to make the describing of them more easy. But, notwithstanding this Difference, it is easy to perceive, that they were originally the same manner of Writing. There are four Letters that are not to be found upon these Medals, which are the Zain, the Cheth, the Samech, and the He. Some are to be seen of Copper, but they are generally of Silver. Some weigh a Shekel, others but half, a third part, or a fourth part of a Shekel.

The Inscriptions vary. Some have Simeon Prince of Israel, the first Year of the Deliverance or Freedom of Israel. Others have Simon for the Deliverance of Jerusalem. Others for the Deliverance of Israel, Year 1. Others for the Deliverance of Jerusalem, Year 2. On some we read at full length, the first Year, or third Year for the Deliverance of Jerusalem, or Israel. On others we have only the first Letter of Shanah, the Year, and one of these three Letters Aleph, Beth, Daleth; which are the first, second, and fourth Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. We are assured that there are more found with a Gimel only¹⁹, which signifies three; but there are some that have, at full length, the third Year. They even doubt whether there are any with Daleth, which signifies four, and it has been suspected, that they have taken the Samaritan B for a Daleth. These Letters mark out the Years, in which these Pieces were struck.

Some learned Men, as we have already observed, at first read Samuel instead of Simon. Others took the Shin for Solomon, and the Daleth for David: So that they explain’d Shin Daleth by Siclus David, and Shin Aleph by Solomon princeps.

But now they are undeceived as to this point; and it is no longer doubted, but that these Letters denote the several Epochs of the Deliverance of the Jews from the Yoke of the Syrians. They are struck according to the Model of the Grecian Medals of the Kings of Syria that then were, who generally mark’d in the Field of their Coins the Year of the Reign of the Seleucidæ.

It remains to inquire at what Year we must fix the Epocha of these Shekels; some fix them at the hundred and seventy first Year of the Seleucidæ, in which Simon completed the perfect Peace and Liberty of Jerusalem, having driven out the Greeks that kept possession of the Citadel of Sion, and made himself Master of it . Others maintain, that the Year before this, or the 170 of the Seleucidæ, of the World 3861, before Christ 142, the Yoke of the Heathen was taken away from Israel, in the hundredth and seventieth Year. Then the People of Israel began to write in their Instruments and Contracts, in the first Year of Simon the High-priest, the Governour and Leader of the Jews. From that time they of the Tower in Jerusalem were kept so strait, that they could neither come forth, nor go into the Country, nor buy, nor sell; wherefore they were in great Distress for want of Victuals, and a great number of them perished thro’ Famine. Then cry’d they to Simon, beseeching him to be at one with them; which thing he granted them: and when he had put them out from thence, he cleansed the Tower from Pollutions. And entred into it the three and twentieth day of the second Month, in the hundred seventy and one Year, of the Seleucidæ, which coincides with the Year of the World 3862, before Christ 141.

Therefore it is evidently, at this Year 170 of the Seleucidæ, that we must fix the beginning of the Coins we are speaking of. The first Year of the Deliverance of Jerusalem, or of Israel, will be the 3861 of the World; and so of the rest.

In this Determination I can see but one Difficulty, which is this; that Simon did not obtain permission to coin his own Money till two Years afterwards, under the Reign of Antiochus Sidetes . Permittimus tibi facere percussuram proprii numismatis in regione tua. That is to say, in the 173 Year of the Seleucidæ, of the World 3863, before Christ 158.

But we ought rightly to distinguish between the Money of Simon Maccabeus, and that of the People of Israel. It may be true, that Simon did not begin to stamp his own Money before the Year 172 of the Seleucidæ, and 3864 of the World; but the People of Israel might stamp theirs two Years before. Simon’s Money is mark’d with his own Name, and that of the People reads only the Shekel of Israel.

However, there are some that believe, that all these Coins belong to the High-priest Simon, and that the Jews did not begin to coin Money, till after the Privilege allow’d to Simon by Sidetes; and that the People look’d upon this Privilege as the true Epocha of their Deliverance from the Yoke of the Heathen; that it was from hence that Simon began to count the Years of the perfect Liberty of Sion, of Jerusalem, and of Israel. But it is better to fix it to the Year 170 of the Seleucidæ, as is said above.

Some of these ancient Shekels have, on one side, a Chalice or Cup; or, according to some learned Men, the Vessel in which the Manna was preserved; tho most cer- H e b r e w C O I N S . tainly this Vessel was not kept in the second Temple. And, on the Reverse, a Sprig of a Tree; which may represent either the Almond-tree that flourish’d in the Rod of Aaron, or rather the Shrub that produced the Balm, which was peculiar to Judea. In others is represented the Face of some Building with Columns, as a Temple or a Mausoleum; and, on the other, a Sheaf, bound up with some thing, as large Ears of Corn that stick out, and beside it, a large Bunch of Grapes, with a Leaf. On others is represented a Palm-tree; and upon the Reverse, the Leaf of a Vine. There are some on which are to be seen a Vine-leaf or a Bunch of Grapes between two Sheaves; and on the Reverse, a Palm-tree between two Altars; or, according to others, between two Measures full of Corn; some have only a few Letters upon the Reverse, and a Vessel like an Ewer on the side.

Upon others is seen an ancient Cithara, and upon the Reverse a Bunch of Grapes. On some there is represented a Bonnet with a kind of Plumage or Tuft, or the Persian Lilly, or the Imperiale, according to Father Souciet, and a Bunch of Grapes on the Reverse. On others there are Pillars with the same Reverse. On others a Tent or Pavillion supported by a Staff, and on the Reverse three Ears of Corn proceeding out of an Urn. Here there is a sheaf of Corn between two Dates, there something like a Pine-apple between two Sheaves, or Lillys, &c.²⁰ All these things have relation to Judea, to its fertility, its advantages, the Fruits that were most common there and most esteem’d; to the Vessels that were us’d in the Temple, to the Temple itself, or to the publick Edifices that were erected by the Maccabees; to the First-fruits of Corn offer’d in the Temple, to the Cups that were made use of in the sacred Ministry.

Tho for some time the World has been agreed to refer these Medals to the Times of Simon Maccabeus, as well because some of them bear his Name, as because they plainly speak of the Deliverance of Sion, Jerusalem, and Israel, and express the Years thereof; yet however there is some room to doubt, whether those which have none of these particular Marks, and have only the bare Inscriptions of Shekel of Israel, or Jerusalem the Holy, were not struck before the Captivity of Babylon, under the Kings of Judah.²¹

541But there are two Things that hinder me from being of this Opinion. First, because it does not appear to me from Scripture, that before the Captivity the Hebrew Kings did ever coin any Money. We never see the Name of any one of them upon any Pieces that have come down to us; we can observe no Mark upon them of Royal Authority, but only Figures that have an evident relation to Religion, to the Temple, and its Ceremonies.

The other Reason is, that in those Pieces themselves that have not the Name of Simon, nor the Inscription of the Deliverance of Israel, or Sion; yet we find some Letter of the ancient Hebrew Alphabet, which has a relation to the Deliverance of Israel, which in others is represented at length. This is what makes me believe that all, in general, belong to the Time of Simon Maccabeus.

The Objection that is taken from the Character itself of these Inscriptions, appears to be more substantial and perplexing. We hinted at it in the beginning of this Dissertation. If these Monies were struck by the Order of Simon Maccabeus, as there is no room to doubt; whence is it that they appear in the Samaritan Character, and not in Hebrew Letters, since these last were in use among the Hebrews from the Time of Esdras; that is to say, about four hundred Years before the 170 Year of the Æra of the Seleucidæ?

They make answer to this Objection two ways. First, by saying that these Pieces were struck not by the Jews, but by the Samaritans, and in some of their own Cities, by the Order of Simon, and unknown to the Jews; who would not have suffer’d the High-priest to engrave any Image upon their Monies, which would have been to violate the Law of Moses, which forbids to make any Representations of Things, either in Heaven, or on Earth. Secondly, that tho the Jews had taken up the Chaldee or Assyrian Character, and commonly made use of it to write their Holy Books, yet they had not intirely abandon’d their ancient Character. They still made use of it sometimes in civil Affairs; they even preserv’d it in their Bibles, by writing the ineffable Name Jehovah in it, as Origen observes. Lastly, says Father Souciet²², they follow’d the ancient Custom of the Hebrew Kings, who had struck their Coins with this Character before the Captivity. His Words are, at the Return from Babylon, they kept the same Form as to the new Money that they made; and the same Language, and Character in the Inscriptions, as was upon their Money before the Captivity. They did not invent any new ones, but only kept up the ancient Species.

The same Father very well confutes those that maintain, that the Coins were stamp’d by the Samaritans²³, in some of their Cities that were under the Obedience of Simon Maccabeus. And indeed is it at all credible, that in order to perpetuate the Memory of the Freedom of Israel from the Yoke of the Heathens, and to do honour to so remarkable and glorious an Event, that Simon should address himself to the Samaritans, for the Execution of his Designs, who were an odious, despised, profane, impious People, always Enemies to the Jews? Would he have made choice for this, of a Tongue and Character that was unknown and disused in his own Nation, and in the powerful and celebrated Nations that border’d upon him? This would have been to have frustrated his own Designs, and to have acted contrary to the Custom of all Nations in the World, who only put upon their Coins such Letters and Inscriptions as are known and used among their own Subjects, their Neighbours and Countrymen. The Phenicians, Greeks, Latins, Arabians, inscribe their Money with their own Characters; and when the Phenicians struck any Coins in honour of the Grecian Princes, that reign’d in Syria, they put the Name of the Prince in Greek, and the Inscription in Phenician.

The reason that they bring for this pretended Conduct of Simon, founded upon the Scruple that he entertain’d, either of breaking the Law himself, or of causing the Jews to break it, by making the visible Representations of Trees, Fruits, or other Things upon his Money; or founded upon the Suspicion he might conceive, that his Countrymen the Jews might oppose it, and accuse him of Prevarication, which inclined him to chuse a City of the Samaritans to coin his Money in, rather than a Jewish City; these Reasons, I say, have but little Solidity in them. For, First, Simon has represented nothing upon his Money that was contrary to the Law²⁴, which only forbids the Representation of natural and sensible Things, to prevent the paying of any idolatrous Worship to them, and which principally condemns the Intention of those who make them with such a Design. But in all that Simon has caused to be engraven upon his Medals, there is nothing, certainly, that has the least tincture of Idolatry, or that contributes to any Irregularity; nothing that can be suspected to be made with such a wicked View; no Animals, no Head of a Man; no Stars, nor the least Syllable that insinuates any foreign Worship. We see there some Fruits, some Sheaves of Corn, things that were offer’d for First-fruits in the Temple; some Vessels appointed for the sacred Ministry; objects that rather contributed to inspire Piety and Religion than to turn any from them.

Secondly, this High-priest would have been equally guilty of Idolatry, whether he had coin’d his Money in Jerusalem, or out of Judea. Idolatry is equally forbidden in all Places, and at all Times and Circumstances. Thirdly, he could not have avoided the giving Scandal to the Jews, who must have seen this Money, and could not be ignorant that he was the Author of it. Fourthly, if the Samaritans observed the Law of Moses, as it is believed with great probability; this would have betray’d them into the Crime of Idolatry, if it were criminal to coin such Money. Fifthly, the Samaritans could not pretend to stamp Money of their own accord; they took no interest in the Deliverance of Jerusalem, but would rather have contributed to its Destruction; they were under no temptation to call Jerusalem the holy City, or to advance the Glory of Simon and the Jews. Lastly, the Samaritans had never any establish’d Mint among them. Among so many Greek, Latin, Phenician, Hebrew, and Egyptian Coins that are still found, not any appears to be struck by the Samaritans in the Name of their Head, Nation, or Cities; is it possible, therefore, that they should be employ’d only to do honour to the Jews, who were their greatest Enemies? Therefore these Coins can only be ascribed to the Jews, and are generally found in the Ruins of old Jerusalem; and in such other Cities of that Country, that were inhabited by Jews.

But whence does it proceed, that we find Hebrew Medals only of the first, second, third, and fourth Years of the Deliverance of Israel, under the High-priest Simon? Those that maintain these Medals to have been struck by the Samaritans, make answer, that when the Jews perceived that the High-priest had incurr’d the Censure of the Law, by the representation of such Figures upon his Coin, they complain’d to him of it, and obliged him to desist, in the fourth Year after the 170th Year of the Seleucidæ; so that he coin’d no more of them for the rest of his Life, which was still two Years longer. But if we take the Epoch of these Coins at the 173d Year of the Seleucidæ, this fourth Year will be exactly the last of Simon; so that it will be no wonder if no more Coins are found after this Date.

The Patrons of that Opinion, who attribute the Coins in dispute to the Jews themselves, reply to this, that there is no proof of these pretended Complaints of the Jews, no more than of Simon’s Prohibition to the Samaritans, not to coin any more. But besides, Mr. Spanheim²⁵ quotes Medals of the sixth Year of Simon, which still coincides with what we have said, that Simon died six Years after the Year of the Seleucidæ 170, and four Years after the Permission granted to Simon by Antiochus Sidetes, of coining his own Money.

There have been some Coins of John Hyrcanus, Successor to Simon; there are others of John’s Successors; so that there can be no reason to affirm, that there was any Prohibition for coining Money, or that the use of it was discontinued in Israel. If there was any Interruption, as is probable enough, since when King Antiochus Euergetes ascended the Throne of his Fore-fathers, he revoked all the Privileges that his Predecessors had granted the Jews; then they might think proper to yield to the Times, and to suspend, for some Years, the minting of Money. This happen’d exactly in the fourth Year of the Seleucidæ , which was also the fourth of the Deliverance of Sion; which is the true time in which we perceive the Interruption of coining the Jewish Money.

Besides, it is to be observed²⁶, that the greatest number of the Hebrew Coins were not made for Simon, nor in honour of him; they bear not his Name, and not a Word is found upon them, not a Figure that can hint any thing of him in particular. It appears that they were struck for the whole Nation in general; we read there, for the Deliverance of Israel, for the Deliverance of Sion, or of Jerusalem: Jerusalem the Holy; the Shekel, Half- Shekel, or third of a Shekel of Israel, &c. These were therefore Jewish Monies, struck at Jerusalem, in the holy City, by the Heads of the Nation. The Deliverance of Sion and of Israel, the Epoch of which is engraven upon the Coins, was prior, by two Years, to the time at which Simon obtain’d permission from Antiochus Sidetes to coin his own Money. Facere percussuram proprii numismatis in regione tua. The People had coined their own Money for two Years before, without any Warrant from the King of Syria. For in the greatest part of those great Privileges that this Prince granted to the Jews, he only confirm’d what they already enjoy’d, and what was not in his power to take from them. But they look’d upon such kind of Confirmations and Concessions as worth obtaining, as they secured to them the quiet Enjoyment of valuable Privileges, and authorized them to support and maintain them.

But to know, at this time, what might determine them to put a Character upon their Coins which they had long disused, is what is the most perplexing thing of all. To say that even from before the Captivity a Custom had obtained of impressing certain Figures upon their Money²⁷, and to make use of certain Letters; that after the Captivity they put all things upon the same footing as before, as much as was possible, and their Coins among the rest; that they kept the same Figures, the same Language, the same Characters; that probably such Hebrew Medals, on which we find no Date, no mention of Simon, nor of the Deliverance of Jerusalem, are the ancient Coins made use of under the Kings of Judah: This is what I have all the difficulty in the World to persuade myself of; and all the Proofs that are advanced for it, to evince the Usefulness, the Antiquity, the Reality, and the Necessity of such a Custom, make but little impression upon me.

I even find, among these Proofs, some things that confirm me in this Opinion. It is said, for example, in the Chronicles, that they melted the Silver that had been offer’d by the People for the repairing the Temple. They melted it, as is affirm’d, to coin it into Money. But why should it be melted, if it was already coin’d into Money, as it must be, supposing that Money of this kind was at that time common in Israel? The He-brew Word Manab, which signifies to count, by no means proves that the Money was coin’d. They counted Ounces, Pounds, Shekels, and half Shekels, by weight. If the Kings of Judah have stamped Money, and have put thereon the Name of Jerusalem the holy, why did they not put their own Names also upon it, as well as Simon Maccabeus? Why did the Kings of Israel never coin any? Is it to be conceived, that out of so great a number of Kings of Judah and Israel, there should not be so much as one, whose certain and indubitable Coins, if they made any, could have escaped coming to our hands?

The Argument that is brought from the Form of the Letters being a little rounded, which is observed on some of these Medals, rather than on others, does not seem to be conclusive²⁸. This Difference is not very plain, and seems to be the effect rather of Chance than Design. The Practice of so many Nations that have always lived without coined Money, and still do so, tho Silver is admitted into their Commerce, is an evident Proof, that in these Things the Mark and Inscription is not absolutely necessary. The Phenicians commonly carried a Stilliard in their Hands, for the weighing of their Money²⁹.

The Prophets upbraid the Jews³⁰ with Fraud in the Weight of their Money. Moses³¹ forbids them to have two sorts of Weights in the same Bag, or two sorts of Stones; all which plainly proves, that Gold and Silver were weighed in Traffick, and that the Royal Authority had not yet assign’d the Value of them, nor had yet ascertain’d the Weight, Title, or Alloy.

But besides, whence is it then that the Jews took up the Samaritan Character, to put it upon their Coins? In my opinion it was because this Character was that of the Phenicians, the Tyrians, and the Sidonians, from among whom Simon and the Jews took their Coiners and Engravers. These being accustom’d to this Character, and using it often upon their own Medals, put it also upon those which they engraved for the Jews; and the Jews took a pleasure and satisfaction in seeing upon their Money the old Letters made use of by their Forefathers before the Captivity, which their Neighbours, the Phenicians and Samaritans, still made use of, and which were not intirely abolished for a long time after, even in their own Nation, as we have shewn from Origen.

What I have affirm’d, that the Phenician Letters were like those of the ancient Hebrews, is allowed by all the Learned³². The Canaanitish or Phenician Language, and the Hebrew, were the same; as also the Canaanitish and ancient Hebrew Letters. Isaiah says³³, that the time should come when five Cities of Egypt shall speak the Language of Canaan, or the Hebrew Tongue, and shall swear by the Name of the Lord of Hosts. The Jews did not exercise the Arts either of Painting, or of Engraving, or Sculpture; because the Law of God having so expresly forbidden them all kinds of Idolatry, they did not encourage any Arts or Trades that had any relation to the making of Images, which were the Objects of idolatrous Worship. It is therefore very probable, that they employed Phenicians in the minting of their Money, who had the constant use of the Phenician Character, and were accustomed to the engraving of Coins and Medals. The Medals struck by the Tyrians in honour of the Kings of Syria, are generally accompany’d with Phenician Characters, as may be seen in Mr. Vaillant, p. 197, 200, 273, of his metallick History of the Kings of Syria. The Sidonians us’d to do the same, as it appears from their Money.

They add thereto the Greek Character, to write the Names of the Kings of Syria, who were Grecians; as also among the Hebrew Medals there are found some, which on one side have Inscriptions in Greek Letters, and on the other in Phenician or Samaritan Letters.

To conclude therefore this Dissertation, it may be said, First, that all the Hebrew Medals, on which we see Inscriptions in the modern Hebrew Characters, are modern and spurious. Secondly, that those which are inscribed with Samaritan Letters, are true and antique. Thirdly, that these Samaritan Letters are the ancient Hebrew, Phenician, or Canaanitish Character, which was us’d by Moses, and the Hebrews, to the time of the Babylonish Captivity. Fourthly, that the modern Hebrew Character is derived from Assyria, or Chaldea, and was not in use among the Jews till the time of Esdras. Fifthly, that very probably all the genuine Coins of the Jews now extant, were struck at, and since the time of the Maccabees, and after the Year 170 of the Seleucidæ, which is the Epoch of the Deliverance of Jerusalem from a foreign Yoke. Sixthly, that these Coins were not struck by the Samaritans, nor in Samaritan Cities unknown to the Jews by the order of Simon; but probably by Tyrian Artists, employ’d by Simon and the Jews for this purpose. Seventhly, that the Tyrian and Samaritan Character to be seen thereon, was the most common Character for Trade and Business, both in Judea, Samaria, and Phenicia. Eighthly, that there never was any Complaint on the part of the Jews, on account of the Impressions of these Coins, as making way for Idolatry; and that if there was any Interruption in the Coinage, it must be imputed to the intervention of the Kings of Syria, or to the Death of Simon. Ninthly, that there is very little appearance that the Kings of Judah or Israel before the Captivity coined any Money. Tenthly and lastly, that it is very probable that under the Maccabees the Jews first began their Coinage by their own Authority, and that when Antiochus Sidetes granted Simon the Privilege of Coining, he struck those Coins that bear his name, and his Successors continued to do the same, till the time of the Herods, when they began to put only the Greek Characters upon them.