Thursday, March 03, 2022

Antiochus Epiphanes in Illinois?

THE POCKET CHANGE BLOG: Antiochus IV in Illinois.
Coins in strange places are great things. Nevertheless, it has always been of some personal disappointment to me that there never seemed to be many examples of Seleucid coins in odd places, excluding those that survived the centuries to be restruck as Jewish coins of the Bar Kokhba War (AD 132–135). This all changed a few months ago when I discovered the June 17, 1882, issue of Scientific American.
The coin seems now to be lost. How it ended up in a field in Illinois remains a mystery.

For more on the coins of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, see here. He was, of course, the chief bad guy of the Maccabean Revolt, as recorded in the Book of Daniel and the books of 1-2 Maccabees. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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