Apollo Advent Calendar: Day 2

Apollo is counting down to Christmas by celebrating some of the greatest acquisitions, gifts and bequests of 2013. We’ll take a closer look each day at one of the outstanding objects, works of art or collections shortlisted for the Apollo Awards Acquisition of the Year.

Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Collection of 1,200 silver coins, 5th–4th century BC
Philistia, Judea and Samaria
Gift of Jeanette and Jonathan Rosen

This gift of the world’s largest collection of coins from ancient Israel’s Persian period, dramatically augments the Israel Museum’s existing holdings. The group includes many rare items, but exceptional among them is a previously unknown YHD drachm (pictured). Dated to the early 4th century BC, it is regarded as the earliest known issue of the Judah (Yehud) province, and is one of just four extant YHD coins of its denomination.

The coin bears the letters yod, heh and dalet in Aramaic script, but details of its iconography – such as the dotted square enclosing the central design of prancing lions on the reverse – are more typical of Philistian coinage. It may have been struck at Philistia’s central mint during Judah’s transition to a monetary economy, when it lacked the means to produce its own coins.