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The New York Sale
Auction 39  10 January 2017
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Lot 25

Estimate: 600 USD
Price realized: 1600 USD
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ANCIENT JEWISH COINS, HASMONEAN DYNASTY, Judaea, Hasmonean Kingdom. Mattathias Antigonos (Mattatayah). Æ 8 Prutot (17.88 g), 40-37 BCE. Jerusalem. 'Mattatayah the High Priest and Council of the Jews' (Paleo-Hebrew), double cornucopiae. Rev. [CC] , ivy wreath tied with ribbons. (TJC 36; Hendin 1162). Attractive green patina with light earthen overlays. Unusually choice for this issue. Choice very fine.

Purchased privately, January 1988.
In 40 BCE, at the head of a Parthian army, Mattathias Antigonus drove Herod the Great and his puppet, the Hasmonaean ethnarch, John Hyrcanus II, out of Jerusalem and was proclaimed king and High Priest by the Parthians and his Jewish supporters. Unfortunately, the wily Herod was not so easily defeated and returned in 39 BCE armed with recognition as the Roman client-king of Judaea. The hapless Mattathias was ultimately defeated and crucified for his troubles, leaving Judaea to begin a new period in its troubled history under the often hated Herodian dynasty.

Estimate: $ 600
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