Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 October 25

= October 25 =

Ancient shekel Palaeo-Hebrew
Can anyone decipher the palaeo-Hebrew script on this shekel? File:Shekel_-_Coins_of_Second_Temple_period.jpg. It doesn't seem to be anything obvious like "shekel", "Israel", "Jerusalem", or "Yehud". If I try to read counterclockwise from the bottom (like File:Barkokhba-silver-tetradrachm.jpg for example) it looks like "L-G-T-L T-Sh-I-Sh-N", with some of the letters oriented oddly, and that doesn't mean anything to me. --Amble (talk) 20:55, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Are you reading with the bottom of the letters towards the middle of the coin, or towards the edge? If the former, try the latter (or vice versa). {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.65.29 (talk) 17:28, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I have tried both, but I expect the bottoms of the letters to be toward the center of the coin, as in the example of the Bar Kokhba coin that I linked above. --Amble (talk) 17:44, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * The quality of the picture is not very good, unfortunately, but I found this other coin that appears to have the same inscription: לגאלת ציון ("for the redemption of Zion"). - Lindert (talk) 21:12, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Wow, thank you, that's it! --Amble (talk) 21:23, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Here's another coin that looks very similar to the one in our photo: . And another File:Masada_coin.jpg similar one that's used in the article First Jewish Revolt coinage. And finally an article in Haaretz about exactly this legend on coins! --Amble (talk) 21:36, 26 October 2021 (UTC)