The Yehud coinage is a series of small silver coins bearing the Aramaic inscription Yehud.[1] They derive their name from the inscription YHD, "Yehud", the Aramaic name of the Persian province of Yehud; others are inscribed YHDH, the same name in Hebrew; it is possible that the former group date from the Persian period and the latter from the following Ptolemaic period.[2] Mildenburg dates them from the early 4th century BCE to the reign of Ptolemy I (312–285 BCE), while Meshorer believes there was a gap during Ptolemy I's time and that minting resumed during Ptolemy II and continued into Ptolemy III, although this has been questioned.[3] The earlier coins were almost certainly produced in imitation of Athenian coins, and were used locally as small change to supplement the larger denominations from more centralised mints elsewhere in the region.[4]
Unlike later Jewish coinage, Yehud coins depict living creatures, flowers and even human beings, in contravention of the Second Commandment "Thou shalt not make for thyself a sculptured image or any likeness" (Exodus 20:4). During the First Temple period figural art was frequently used, such as the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant, the twelve oxen that supported the giant laver in front of Solomon's Temple, etc. Thus, it is likely that the Yehud coins are continuing the use of figural art from the previous period. The prohibition against graven images in Exodus was probably seen as relating only to idolatrous images rather than the purely decorative. Depictions on the coinage include imagery borrowed from other cultures, such as the Athenian Owl, mythological creatures, and perhaps even images of Jewish rulers.[5] One coin depicts an enthroned deity, claimed by some experts to be Yahweh, while this is disputed by others.[6] It has been suggested recently that this coin was actually minted in Samaria and depicts Samarian Yahweh.[7]
The coins from the Persian period tend to be inscribed in Aramaic "square script" or Paleo-Hebrew and use the Aramaic spelling of the province as 'y-h-d', while those coins from the Ptolemaic/Hellenistic period are inscribed in the Paleo-Hebrew script and usually spell Judea as 'y-h-d', 'y-h-d-h' or 'y-h-w-d-h'.[8]
Mildenberg divides most of the Persian period 'Yehud' coinage into three groups: an early group of poorly defined coins with the head of Athena on the obverse with her owl on the reverse with the inscription 'y-h-d' in Paleo-Hebrew; the second group are more clearly defined and depict a lily, and an Egyptian falcon (see pictures), and the head of the Persian king, with the inscription 'y-h-d'; the third group has the Hebrew inscription 'Hezekiah the governor' (yhzqyh hphh). All these coins have been found in the area of Judea.[9]
The Yehud coins come in two denominations, approximately .58 gram as a ma'ah and approximately .29 gram as a half ma'ah (chatzi ma'ah). These coins were minted in the first 40 years of the Second Temple era. For larger coinage, they first used Persian coinage, the Persian daric and the Sigloi; then Greek (Alexandrian Empire) coins like the drachma and the tetradrachm.
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