ROMAN COINAGES OF PALESTINE haim gitler Independent Jewish Coinage Under the Hasmonaeans, c. 128–37 B.C. After a long hiatus in which Jewish coins were not struck (chapter 14 here), the Jerusalem mint began to function, this time under Hasmonean rule. (For the sake of convenience, this chapter starts with the Hasmonean rule over Palestine that starts with the expulsion of the Seleucids and ends in the first decades of the Roman rule.) From then on, the minting of Jewish coins continued without interruption for almost two centuries under the rule of the Hasmonean and Herodian kings. Hasmonean coins are distinguished by their long and interesting inscriptions in the Paleo-Hebrew script (sometimes referred to as Neo-Hebrew, in order to differenti- ate First (Iron Age II) from Second Temple period scripts), as well as in Aramaic and in Greek. They also form the largest group of Jewish coins depicting motifs con- nected mainly with fertility. On the John Hyrcanus I (129–104 BC) (fig. 26.1 ) and Alexander Jannaeus (c. 104–76 BC; fig. 26.2 ) coins, the lily appears again; this emblem was used before, first on the coins of Judah during the Persian period and then on the coins struck in Jerusalem in the name of Antiochus VII by John Hyrcanus I. Other coins depict the designs of an anchor, a star and diadem (fig. 26.3 ), a palm branch, and a helmet. Most of these motifs were borrowed from the repertoire of Seleucid coin designs but appear here in a Jewish fashion. But the most prominent symbol of Hasmonean coins is undoubtedly the double cornucopiae with a pome- granate between them and an inscription within a wreath on the reverse of the coin 0001341910.INDD 485 0001341910.INDD 485 9/24/2011 6:59:14 PM 9/24/2011 6:59:14 PM