Prutah - Simeon bar Kosevah Year Three

Struck during the third and final year of the Bar Kokhba revolt, this coin was issued as the rebellion against Rome was collapsing. The dating itself — "Year Three of the Freedom of Israel" — was an act of defiance; Jewish law prohibited images, so the revolt's coinage was struck over existing Roman provincial bronzes, and on many examples the undertype is still visible through the new design. The host coins were typically Trajanic or Hadrianic issues, which gives scholars a firm terminus post quem for the series.

Simon bar Kosevah's forces held Jerusalem only briefly, and Hadrian's reconquest under Julius Severus effectively ended Jewish autonomy in Judea for centuries. The province was renamed Syria Palaestina shortly after.