JUDAEA, Herod Agrippa I, 37-44 AD, bronze prutah, year 6

DescriptionHerod Agrippa was the grandson of Herod the Great and son of Aristobulus IV. He grew up in Rome, where he played around and went into debt. He fled Rome for Palestine, where he messed around making bad decisions. Bailed out by his family, he continued messing around, got involved with Tiberius and then Caligula. He used his Roman contacts to obtain the petty kingship of Judaea, which he held under the patronage of his friend Emperor Claudius. He died after seeing an owl above his head, that having been a prophesied omen.The mostly tiny bronze coins of the ancient Jews tell us of the low economic level of their country at the time. The silver and gold were made elsewhere, where the money was.The ancient historian Josephus wrote the history of the Jews from the First Day to the First Revolt. Go read it, then we can talk.Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.