Zuz - Simeon bar Kosevah Year Two

Struck during the second year of the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome, this zuz belongs to a coinage produced almost entirely by overstruck Roman denarii — the rebels had no mint infrastructure, so captured Roman silver was the raw material. The choice was as much a political act as a practical one, erasing Roman imagery beneath Jewish symbols at a moment when Hadrian's ban on circumcision and plans for a Roman colony on Jerusalem's ruins had pushed Judea into open war.

Bar Kokhba himself — Simon ben Kosevah — administered the revolt with documented bureaucratic precision, as the Dead Sea cache of his actual letters confirms. Year Two issues are generally more available than Year Three, which reflects how the revolt's final collapse in 135 AD disrupted production entirely.