PONTIUS PILATE AE PRUTAH, PREFECT UNDER TIBERIUS
Hendin 6371c, Very Fine, scratches to left of lituus, 17.4mm, 1.47 grams, Struck Circa. 30/31 C.E.
Obverse: Crude date LIZ within wreath
Reverse: TIBEPIOY KAICAPOC around littus
A possibly unique example of this die with a retrograde date in wreath and misoriented letter. The coin has been sitting in our "interest" box waiting to be studied for about 20 years, as it is the only example we have every seen. The date is clearly meant to be LIZ but is retrograde with the "Z" inverted to a type of "N". It seems to be a recut of the obverse of this ONE die present in the menorah coin project. We have provided the photo. You can also go to this page and scroll down to the section entitled SIL (about 2/3's of the way down, a bit above "Regular Dies with Errors". The obverse die is clearly of the same die. There is a difference in that our coin has a thick bar under the "N". It would appear that at some point they tried to improve the crudity of the die by engraving this horizontal line, thus making thie "N" look more like a "Z".
An Extremely RARE and intriguing Biblical Coin of this tumultuous time in Judeo-Christian history!
