Medal Israel Historical Cities

In this nice collection you will find nine 'coins that commemorate coins.' Rather, since a medal is not a coin, the correct description would be 'medals that commemorate coins.' These are modern medals issued by Israel Government Coins and Medals Corporation Ltd., a government-sanctioned corporation commissioned to commemorate national achievements in modern Israel. Each medal has a picture of an ancient coin from one of the selected historical cities: Jerusalem, Acre, Askelon, Tiberia, Beit-Shean, Avdat, Caesarea, Jaffa, and Lod.

Looking closely at the reverse side of the Jaffa coin, the Greek spelling JOPPA can be clearly seen (IOppH, where 'p' is the Greek letter 'pi') on the pictured ancient coin. This is the spelling found in both the Old and New Testaments:

'We will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may carry it up to Jerusalem.' (2 Chronicles 2:16)

'Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea' (Acts 10:6ff)

While items like these sold by the manufacturer on the primary market always carry big price tags, the secondary market, i.e., buying and selling among owners, is usually very soft. Since they are modern pieces, they often trade a few dollars above their innate value. For bronze issues, there is no innate value, but silver issues are worth their weight in silver. A typical single bronze coin would sell for about $10 US dollars on the secondary market, and a typical silver coin would sell for a little more than the price of one ounce of silver, as found on web sites such as kitco.com.

The dating on these medals is more like 1965 than any ancient date. For Jewish dates, BCE (Before Common Era) is equivalent to BC (Before Christ) while CE (Common Era) is equivalent to AD (Anno Domini in Latin, or Year of our Lord).

For a close look at *actual* coins from Bible times, see this page on ForumAncientCoins.com. You can see an actual coin from Jaffa about halfway down the page.
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