Prutah - Eleazar the Cohen Year Three

Struck during the third and final year of the Bar Kokhba revolt, this prutah belongs to a series issued when Roman forces under Hadrian were systematically reducing the last Jewish strongholds in Judea. Year Three coinage is considerably scarcer than Year One and Year Two issues — by that point, the mint's output was contracting as territory was lost. The attribution to Eleazar the Cohen, who appears on coins only from Years One and Two before vanishing from the record entirely, makes his name appearing on a Year Three piece a point of ongoing scholarly debate.