Coins provide us with a vivid example of how Hellenistic, Roman, and local tastes might be combined. The placement of a portrait on the obverse and a symbol on the reverse and the use of inscriptions to identify the minting authority had been widespread under the Greeks. The Romans and their subject peoples refashioned Hellenistic numismatic customs to suit their own needs. They used busts to propagate the emperor's image and legends to advertise his honorific titles. The designs of coins reflected the values and tastes of their minting authorities, whether imperial officials, the staffs of client kings, or civic elites. Coins thus offer us insight into the ideologies and preferences of the upper classes, and they might sometimes reflect deference to the values of the masses. Though we can rarely discern what commoners thought of these designs, we can understand, at least in a general sense, some of the messages to which they were exposed.

In Galilee, coins were quite likely the primary source of most people's exposure to writing, the portrait of the emperor, and explicit pagan imagery. In this chapter, I will provide an overview of Galilee's coinage, both the coins struck in the region and those minted elsewhere. Because coins often remained in circulation for a long time and sometimes traveled far from their places of origin, many Galileans would have been aware of changes in numismatic trends over time and of features that made locally-minted coins similar to and different from those produced elsewhere.