While archaeologists have found numerous coins produced by participants in Simon Bar Kokhba’s revolt against Roman rule in 132 CE, the recent discovery of one in a cave near the city of Modi’in suggests that the revolt was not centered exclusively in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem but instead spread farther than most historians had realized. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:
Historians have traditionally held that the revolt had little support among residents who lived north of Jerusalem. This coin, along with recent discoveries of other refugee caves, points to rebel activity in the area. . . . Also found in the cave, located near the Arab village of Qibya, were potsherds and glass shards that have been similarly dated to the revolt.
The Bar Kokhba or Great Revolt, which lasted three and a half years, was the last and arguably greatest of several Jewish uprisings against foreign rulers in ancient times. The rebels prepared well ahead of time, and, according to the 3rd-century historian Dio Cassius, Roman legions were brought from other outposts in the empire to quell it. [He also] writes that some 50 Jewish fortresses and over 1,000 settlements were destroyed, along with hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives lost. . . .
The Bar Kokhba coinage is unique in its widespread systematic recycling of old coins, which were re-stamped, or overstruck, with the Jews’ diecasts. According to the leading numismatist Yaakov Meshorer, . . . the reason was political—for revenge.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/unearthed-bar-kochba-coin-harkens-to-when-jewish-rebels-tried-to-stamp-out-rome/