Prutah - John Hyrcanus I

John Hyrcanus I ruled as both High Priest and ethnarch following the murder of his father Simon Maccabaeus at a dinner party in Jericho in 134 BC — a killing orchestrated by his own brother-in-law, Ptolemy son of Abubus. These small bronzes represent the first independent Jewish coinage, a direct assertion of political autonomy made possible by the Seleucid Empire's accelerating collapse under Antiochus VII Sidetes, who died campaigning in Parthia in 129 BC and left Judea free of foreign tribute obligations almost overnight.

Hyrcanus never struck silver — that privilege was withheld by Hasmonean convention from rulers who had not yet claimed the royal title.