This tiny 13mm, 1.47gram prutah minted in Jerusalem is one of the coins of the infamous Herod the Great and is over 2000 years old. The obverse shows an anchor and the reverse shows two crossed cornucopia (horns of plenty). If you look closely between them you will see a kerykeion /caduceus that was carried by heralds at the Greek Olympic Games. This is something Herod had an interest in…in fact he financed and presided over the games in 12 BC.
Appointed by the Romans, “King of Judea”, Herod favoured Greek culture but at the same time did not want to offend the Jews so he did not put his image on his coins. Although he was involved in vast building projects, and the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem, he only paid lip service to Judaism and was viewed with suspicion by the population. Married ten times, he was an evil and cruel man who murdered one of his wives and two of his sons. Not the kind of man you would bring a cold dinner too.!
Herod is notorious for the murder of the children in Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill the true King of the Jews, Jesus Christ, who had been born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2v16). This was an event predicted in the Bible hundreds of years before it happened (Jeremiah 31v15 and Matthew 2v17). Today scoffers will say "The Bible is a fairy tale"…Well Herod was no fairy story! How many fairy tale characters minted their own coins? Everyone knew about the darkness of Herod but the light of the world had been born in Bethlehem - "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour ,who is Christ the Lord" Luke 2v11