Lot 3372

Description

Carian Islands, Rhodes, (304-189 B.C.), silver tetradrachm, (13.282 grams), obv. radiate head of Helios three-quarter face to right with hair loose, rev. rose, with bud on right, PO**DION* below, to left prow of vessel to right, below **AMEI NIAS*, all within dotted border, (S.5046, BMC 120 [p.241, Pl.xxxviii, 1], SNG Cop.752, SNG Finland 542). Attractive light tone with piercing eyes, with minor spot of metal loss on edge, otherwise nearly extremely fine and rare.

A most interesting coin as this tetradrachm coin type was treasured by several religious foundations in the middle ages as one of the actual 'thirty pieces' of silver which were accepted by Judas Iscariot for the betrayal of Christ (Matt XXVI, 15). In the middle ages the appearance of this coin from the Greek world showed to the uninitiated several 'proofs' of identification. The obverse of these coins shows a facing head of the sun god Helios surrounded by rays of light and to some medieval minds, this clearly was the head of Christ himself wearing the crown of thorns! The reverse type, a rose, was thought of as the rose of Sharon - symbolizing the Resurrection. The rose is actually the emblem of Helios and a punning allusion the the name of the mint, Rhodes (which is Greek for rose). These 'Judas Pennies' as they are sometimes called would hardly have been current in quantity in Palestine so long after their issue but an odd one or two might have appeared on the money changers tables at the time of Christ and during the following centuries. But it is now clear that they were not one of the 'thirty pieces'.