Legionary Token Coinage

307, Lot: 246. Estimate $100. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUDAEA, Caesarea Maritima. temp. Trajan - Hadrian. Circa AD 98-138. Æ “Minim” (10mm, 0.30 g, 11h). Imperial head right / Hem-hem crown of Harpokrates; in lower right field, Z (part of pseudo-date). H. Hamburger, “Minute coins from Caesarea,” ’Atiqot I (1955), 103. VF, dark brown patina.

A recurring phenomenon around Caesarea is the appearance of reduced module imitiations of circulating coinage. The pieces most often published are so-called “minims” which copy the bronze prutahs of the Herodian kings, the procurators, and the First Jewish War. As quantities of these coins have been found in outlying regions, especially around the sites of the legionary encampments, rather than in the city proper, they probably served as a token currency in the camps and their associated settlements. For further discussion, see the above cited study by H. Hamburger.