The New York Sale 2026 Ancient & World

Very Rare Showbread-Table Prutah

1086 Hasmonean. Mattityah Antigonus (40-37 BC). Æ Prutah (0.76 g; 11 x 15mm). Jerusalem. Traces of paleo-Hebrew ‘Mattityah the Priest’ around showbread table. Reverse: Traces of BACIΛEΩΣ ANTIΓONOY around seven-branched menorah. Hendin 6203. TJC 41. Very rare and important. Planchet casting flaw. A very interesting example, where despite the planchet having a casting flaw which created a hole, the coin was struck on it. Very Fine. The showbread table and the seven-branched menorah depicted here were two of the most sacred objects in the Second Temple of Jerusalem. At the time this coin was struck, both were specific emblems of the Temple. It was only after the Temple was destroyed by Titus in AD 70, that the use of the menorah (even seen carried in triumphal procession on the Arch of Titus in Rome) as a symbol grew. Within a few hundred years, it would become a symbol of Judaism itself.

$25,000

As these very rare Prutah were poorly struck and always from dies much larger than the planchets, invariably parts of the legend are off the flan.

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