"As he (Jesus) looked up he saw rich people putting their offerings into the treasury; then he happened to notice a poverty stricken widow putting in two small copper coins, and he said, 'I tell you truly, this poor widow has put in more than any of them; for these have all contributed money they had left over, but she from the little she had has put in all she had to live on.'" (Mark 12:41-44)

The coin name in King James English is the widow's "mite". The proper Greek name is lepton for any coin in this exhibit with similar size. The illustrated coin was one of the first, and most common, Jewish coins ever minted, dating from the time of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.), a descendent of Judas Maccabee. Jewish leptons often show defects of hasty mintage methods.
[SG 6087=H 469]

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