JUDAEA, Jewish War. 66-73/4 CE. Shekel (Silver, 22 mm, 14.04 g, 9 h), Jerusalem, Year 5 = April-August 70 CE. 𐤔𐤒𐤋 𐤉𐤔𐤓𐤀𐤋 ('Shekel [of] Israel' in Paleo-Hebrew) around ritual chalice; above, 𐤔𐤄 ('Year 5' in Paleo-Hebrew). Rev. 𐤉𐤓𐤅𐤔𐤋𐤉𐤌 𐤄𐤒𐤃𐤅𐤔𐤄 ('Jerusalem the Holy' in Paleo-Hebrew) Sprig of three pomegranates. BMC Palestine pl. XXX, 9 (same dies). Bromberg -. Deutsch 12.2-13 (this coin cited, O5/R12). Hendin 6399b. Kadman 44. Meshorer, AJC, 31a (same dies). Samel -. Shoshana II 20128 (same dies). Sofaer -. Very rare and beautifully toned. Typical porosity on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.



Struck during the chaotic final months of the Jewish War, the Year 5 shekels are by far the rarest coins in the series, apart from the Year 1 prototype issue (Hendin 6381) This is hardly surprising: they were produced while Jerusalem was under siege by Titus, between April and August 70 CE, when the city was already descending into famine, factional violence and destruction.

In the mid-1980s, thirteen additional examples came to light in the safe of the long-established London firm Baldwin’s. All were struck from the same pair of dies as a specimen acquired by the British Museum in 1887. The British Museum coin itself is very likely to have formed part of the same original group. At the very least, it proves that coins of this distinctive die-pair were already in existence by 1887, almost a century before the Baldwin’s specimens were rediscovered. At some point in the early twentieth century, however, an unknown person had marked the coins held by Baldwin’s as 'forgeries'. No record survives of who made this judgement, when precisely it was made, or on what evidence it was based.

The so-called Baldwin’s Group has since become one of the most widely discussed issues in Jewish numismatics. Following examination by scanning electron microscopy, Herbert Kreindler argued that the coins were genuine: H. Kreindler, The Application of SEM for Authentication of an Important Find of Year Five Shekels of the Jewish War, INJ 9 (1986–1987), pp. 38–45. Later authors, including David Hendin and Robert Deutsch, noted the doubts surrounding the group but did not state whether they regarded the coins as genuine or modern. Ya‘akov Meshorer, by contrast, had already accepted the die-linked British Museum specimen as unquestionably genuine in 1982, before the Baldwin’s Group became known, and later acquired one of the newly discovered specimens for the Israel Museum.

Five coins from the group were also examined by X-ray fluorescence analysis at the British Museum Research Laboratory, whose report concluded that 'there is no definitive reason to doubt the authenticity of this group of Year 5 Sheqels'; British Museum Research Laboratory, RL File No. 5415, 29 August 1986, cited by Hendin under no. 6395 and on p. 494, note 65. Thus, while several leading authorities have argued in favour of the coins’ authenticity, and while the die-pair is securely documented as early as 1887, the question has never been finally resolved.

The present coin, offered as part of the Judaica Collection, is catalogued with full disclosure of this continuing scholarly debate. Our standard guarantee of authenticity is therefore qualified in the case of this lot: we guarantee that the coin is an example of the so-called Baldwin’s Group, but do not provide an unqualified guarantee of its ancient manufacture. The doubts expressed in the numismatic literature have been clearly stated above and have been taken into account in the cataloguing of the lot. The lot may consequently not be returned solely on the basis of those disclosed doubts, or of an opinion founded upon them.