Sela - Simeon bar Kosevah Year One

Struck in the first year of the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome, this sela belongs to a coinage program with no mint buildings, no professional die-cutters, and no imperial sanction — Jewish rebels overstruck existing Roman provincial silver because they had no other blanks. The decision to recoin Roman currency was itself a political act, deliberately effacing Roman authority with Hebrew inscriptions invoking the liberation of Jerusalem.

Simon bar Kosevah's cognomen "bar Kokhba" — son of a star — was applied by Rabbi Akiva, who declared him the promised messiah. The revolt was crushed by 135 AD; Hadrian subsequently banned Jews from Judea entirely.