Anchor, ancient Hebrew inscription "Yehonatan" // Mirror image of the obverse in incuse. 14mm, 1.90 g.

Large and thick planchet, nice brown patina. Two different pictures of this coin are shown.

Ancient Judean brockages are fairly scarce and difficult to find. A brockage in ancient numismatics is a minting error that occurs when a freshly struck coin sticks to the die and then impresses its design in reverse onto the next blank flan. The result is a coin with a normal design on one side and an incuse, mirror-image impression of the same design on the other. Brockages are relatively rare and prized by collectors, as they provide direct evidence of ancient minting techniques.

The widow’s mite refers to the small bronze coins of ancient Judaea, usually the lepton or prutah, struck under the Hasmonean and early Roman rulers in the 1st century BCE–1st century CE. They were the lowest denomination in circulation, crudely struck and often off-center, but widely used in daily life. Their name comes from the New Testament story in which a poor widow donates two of these tiny coins to the Temple treasury, symbolizing humble but sincere devotion.