Coins move, but mints and issuing authorities begin in places. The maps on this page are schematic guides to the coast, inland waters, principal cities and changing sequence of rule. Wikipedia’s article on Persian Yehud supplies the provincial background for the earliest local silver. The diagrams are not boundary surveys; they help connect Jerusalem, Tiberias, Caesarea, Caesarea Paneas, Gamla and Qumran to the coin stories told elsewhere in the guide.
From Yehud to a Hasmonean state
Persian Yehud centred on Jerusalem within a larger imperial system. Its small silver coins carried the provincial name while borrowing and adapting images current around the eastern Mediterranean. After Macedonian conquest and Ptolemaic rule, the local name continued on silver for a time. The Hasmonean period later brought bronze coinage and a territorial state under rulers who also held the high priesthood.
On a small map, that sequence can look like a set of changing outlines. Coins add another dimension. They show when an authority used a local name, which script it selected and which places mattered enough to appear in a legend.
Herod’s kingdom and its division
Herod the Great ruled a broad kingdom, but after his death his territories were divided. Antipas governed Galilee and Perea and associated his coinage with Tiberias. Philip ruled northern and eastern territories and issued portrait coins linked to Caesarea Paneas. Judaea later came under Roman prefects, while Herodian rulers continued elsewhere.
This division explains why several bronze series overlap in time without belonging to the same administration. A palm branch on a Tiberias issue and a lituus on a prefectural prutah came from different political settings even if the coins later travelled beyond them.
Roman Judaea and revolt mints
Wikipedia’s Roman Judaea article describes the province governed by prefects before the return of procurators. Jerusalem remained central and became the accepted mint for the silver and bronze of the First Jewish Revolt. Gamla produced its own rare revolt issue, while Caesarea served as a Roman administrative centre.
Wikipedia’s history of Gamla connects that town with a local coin carrying a declaration about Jerusalem. Qumran, near the Dead Sea, was not a mint in this story; it matters as an archaeological site where coins help establish chronology and exchange.
How to use a schematic
A schematic map suppresses topographic detail so that relationships remain clear. The Mediterranean coast lies to the west; the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea anchor the Jordan valley; Jerusalem sits inland between them and the coast. Distances and borders are intentionally approximate.
The timeline works the same way. Periods overlap at the edges, rulers change, and coin series do not always begin or end on a clean line. The band offers orientation, while the individual pages provide the historical qualifications.
Continue through Persian Yehud, Antipas and Tiberias, and Jerusalem’s revolt mint.