Welcome to Biblical Numismatics

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Numismatics is a fancy term for the study of money, coins, and commemorative medals. Once a hobby for just kings and nobility, anyone can collect coins using any theme or connection one so chooses. When you have a coin in your hand, whether one from a recent transaction or an ancient coin thousands of years old, you are touching history. That coin has symbols that tell a story. That coin is also a work of art--a sculpture on a disk of metal. 

Many of the books of the Hebrew Bible predate the first coins. Coins came into use during the 7th Century BC, about the time of the prophets Daniel, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk. The first government to issue coinage was the Kingdom of Lydia, where they produced specimens made of electrum, an alloy of gold mixed with silver. The precious metal content in those pieces was probably for more significant trade transactions like land and crop sales instead of day to day purchases like bread and other necessities. Over time, other countries produced less valuable items out of silver or copper, and people used coinage as a medium of exchange throughout the ancient world.

The Lydian Lion minted around 620 BC (not in my collection.)

I believe the Bible to be the word of God. The Bible mentions people and places that were very real, and these artifacts that continue to exist today connect us with that very genuine past. We are going to take a fascinating journey together as we learn about the ancient money used by people in places connected to or mentioned in the Bible, and we are going to see the scripture that relates to the coins.

Over the past years, God has blessed me to be able to assemble a personal collection of beautiful, authentic ancient and biblical coins. When I hold some of these coins, it gives me excitement to realize that one of the specimens might have been carried or touched by one of the disciples, or perhaps even Jesus himself. How likely is it? I have no idea, but it is POSSIBLE. You never know, and that is what makes it fascinating.

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