JUDAEA, Hasmoneans. Mattathias Antigonos, 40-37 BCE. Prutah (Bronze, 12 mm, 0.68 g, 12 h), Jerusalem, 37. ['Mattatayah the High Priest'] (in Paleo-Hebrew) Showbread table with two stacks of showbread. Rev. [BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANT] Seven-branched menorah. Meshorer 42. Hendin 6203. HGC 10, 650. Sofaer 446. Very rare and of great historical and iconographical interest. Fine.
Mattathias Antigonos came to power amid the chaos of the Roman civil wars. In 41/40 BCE, the Parthians, led by their crown prince Pakoros I and the Roman traitor Quintus Labienus Parthicus, advanced into the Roman East, conquering and plundering much of Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine - Jerusalem also falling into their hands. Pakoros captured Johannes Hyrkanos II and installed his anti-Roman nephew, Mattathias Antigonos, as both king and high priest of the Jews. However, in 39 BCE, Herod, who had fled to Rome, invaded Palestine. Together with the Syrian governor Gaius Sosius, he laid siege to Jerusalem in 37 BCE and was able to capture the city after several months. Mattathias, the last Hasmonean king, was executed in Antioch later that same year, and Herod, the new ruler, eliminated the remaining members of the Hasmonean family. Our very rare coin was struck during the siege of the holy city and features depictions of the Showbread Table and the seven-branched Menorah - the two holiest objects in Judaism. In the eyes of contemporaries, depicting these sacred relics clearly violated the Mosaic prohibition against images. This bold act of defiance can likely be explained by Mattathias' desperate situation: besieged in his capital, he sought to rally his supporters by visually reminding them of what was at stake - namely, the preservation of these sacred symbols. The rarity of these coins, along with their crude production, further reflects the urgency of the moment. They were struck using hastily cut dies on irregular flans. As the final coinage of a Hasmonean ruler and as contemporary depictions of the Showbread Table and Menorah - objects that would be taken by the Flavians after the conquest of Jerusalem a century later (in 70 CE) and subsequently lost to history - these Prutot of Mattathias hold exceptional numismatic, historical, iconographic, and religious significance