We prefer, then, adopting the theory of Bayer, Eckhel, Cavedoni, and others, that the Jewish coinage commenced under Simon Maccabnus.
In the hundred and seventieth year (B.c. 142) of the Seleucidan era, Demetrius II., king of Syria, granted freedom to the Jewish people, and the yoke of the heathen was taken away from Israel,' and the people wrote in their contracts 'in the first year of Simon the high-priest, the governor and leader of the Jews form which Josephus gives : 'in the first year of Simon the benefactor and ethnarch of the Jews' (Antiq. xiii. 6. 7). In B.C. 139 Antiochus VII. Sidetes, granted even more privileges than Demetrius ; for, besides con firming all the gifts and decrees of other kings before him, he gave Simon leave ' to coin money for his country with his own stamp' (tad lirerpeOci croi irovijaat dal.cart3cop vbtuatcalxulpil uou. xv. 6) ; and though there may not seem to be sufficient reason for supposing that Simon made use of the privilege of coining before Antiochus actually conferred it upon him, it is more than probable that he did so.
It has not been hitherto observed that Antiochus VII. must have granted the privilege of coining to Simon previous to his brother, Demetrius IL, being taken prisoner by Mithridates I., king of Parthia (Arsaces VI., I Maccab. xiv. 1), in B.C. 138, and him self obtaining the throne in B.C. Iv. The grant took place in the fourth year of Simon's pontificate (B.c. 139), and his coins date from the November of that year to his death in February B. C. 135. These dates will give three years and a commencement of a fourth for the four years of Simon of which we possess coins. It is, however, to be remarked, that in the same year that the permission of coinage was granted to Simon, Antiochus ` brake all the cove nants which he had made with him afore' (1 Maccab. xv. 27), and this may prove that Simon struck coins previous to the actual permission being conferred, and during the most prosperous period of his reign. [For this question, see F. W. Madden, History of .2ewish Coinage, p. note.) 'We now pass to the description of the coins :