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This is the earliest known Jewish coin. It may have been minted in Philistia for the province of Yehud, before Yehud began to mint its own coins. The front depicts the head of a gorgon, a Greek…
On the front is a lily, commonly found on Yehud coins. On the back is a bird that most ornithologists consider to be a falcon; there is no consensus on its symbolism. With wings spread, this falcon…
Jerome Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, was appointed to rule the short-lived Kingdom of Westphalia, which Napoleon established in Northern Germany. This medal celebrates his grant of emancipation to…
In 1829, German Jewish metallurgist Lewis Feuchtwanger attempted to introduce a metal alloy known as “German silver” into U.S. coinage, promoting this nickel silver as a less-expensive alternative for…
This bronze medal by Jacques Elion commemorates the opening of a Jewish orphanage in Amsterdam. The Hebrew inscription reads: “Orphanage.” It was customary for Jewish communities to issue medals to…
The image on this coin is the front of a hybrid creature with the body of a winged feline (probably that of a lynx) and the head of a human. The head, crowned, has a beard and horns, representing a…
This coin from Yehud, the Persian name for the province of Judah, is larger and heavier than others like it. The helmeted and bearded male on the front is a deity who is usually, though not…
On this coin, the owl has lost some of the distinctive features of the Athenian prototypes. Instead of the large prominent eyes, the face is relatively small, and the eyes are even smaller. The bird’s…
The image of an ear on this coin may symbolize God as the one who hears prayers, as in passages such as Psalm 34:16, 18, and Psalm 130:2. The image is paralleled on Egyptian stelas that depict…
I. W. Loewenbach’s medal commemorating the dedication of the new synagogue in Munich (1826) is among the earliest German synagogue medals. On one side of the medal, one sees the façade of the…
