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A number of coins are mentioned in the Bible, and they have proved very popular among coin collectors. [1]Specific coins mentioned in the Bible include the widow's mite, the tribute penny and the thirty pieces of silver, though it is not always possible to identify the exact coin that was used.
The coins were the size of a modern Israeli half-shekel and were issued by Tyre, in that form, between 126 BC and AD 56. Earlier Tyrian coins with the value of a tetradrachm, bearing various inscriptions and images, had been issued from the second half of the fifth century BC.
A bronze mite, also known as a Lepton (meaning small), minted by Alexander Jannaeus, King of Judaea, 103–76 BC and still in circulation at the time of Jesus [1]. The lesson of the widow's mite or the widow's offering is presented in two of the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 12:41–44 and Luke 21:1–4), when Jesus is teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Herodian coinage were coins minted and issued by the Herodian Dynasty, Jews of Idumean descent who ruled the province of Judaea between 37 BC – 92 AD. The dynasty was founded by Herod the Great who was the son of Antipater, a powerful official under the Hasmonean King Hyrcanus II.
The Antiochan Stater is one possibility for the identity of the coins making up the thirty pieces. A Tyrian shekel, another possibility for the type of coin involved. The word used in Matthew 26:15 (ἀργύρια, argyria) simply means "silver coins", [10] and scholars disagree on the type of coins that would have been used.
It is this coin that is sold and collected as the "tribute penny", and the Gospel story is an important factor in making this coin attractive to collectors. [2] The inscription reads "Ti[berivs] Caesar Divi Avg[vsti] F[ilivs] Avgvstvs" ("Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus"), claiming that after death Augustus had become a god.