Small bronze - Simeon bar Kosevah Year One

Struck in the first year of the revolt against Rome, this issue was produced by an administration that controlled Jerusalem briefly enough to mint coins but not long enough to survive. Bar Kokhba — almost certainly a messianic nickname meaning "Son of a Star" — led what Hadrian's suppression would later make the last major Jewish revolt in antiquity. The uprising was triggered in part by Hadrian's plan to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman colony named Aelia Capitolina, with a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount.

Most Bar Kokhba bronzes were struck over existing Roman provincial coins, and host flans frequently bleed through on weakly overstruck specimens.