Large Comprehensive Collection of "Görlitz Shekels" – Europe and the USA, 17th-20th Centuries

Large Comprehensive Collection of "Görlitz Shekels" – Europe and the USA, 17th-20th Centuries
120 Görlitz Shekels, Masonic tokens and more – various types, including types not recorded in "Shekel Medals and False Shekels", by Bruno Kisch (1943). Germany, England and the USA, [17th century to 20th century].
The first "Görlitz Shekel" coins were struck in the 15th century, at a time when few knew what Jewish coins from the First Jewish–Roman War looked like. Their invention is attributed to George Emmerich, mayor of Görlitz in Prussia, who visited Palestine as a pilgrim in 1465, and upon his return to Görlitz, built a replica of the Holy Sepulchre. The pilgrims who came to the site were offered souvenir tokens, first introduced as copies of one of the thirty pieces of silver given to Judas Iscariot by the Romans for betraying Jesus. Ever since, such coins were struck with small variations, at first throughout the Holy Roman Empire and later in other countries, including the USA, and were popular among Jews and Christians alike. Struck without seeing a genuine shekel, the Görlitz Shekels design relied on the few and faulty testimonies that appeared in books and on imagination. Thus, while ancient Jewish coins bear legends in Ancient Hebrew script (Paleo-Hebrew), the legends "Shekel Israel" and "Holy Jerusalem" appear on Görlitz Shekels in square Hebrew script; the pomegranate branch and the goblet, while taken from descriptions of genuine shekel coins, vary in design. Although at first the coins were introduced as souvenirs, it wasn't long before they started being sold as ancient coins from the Temple period.
Over the years, they were used for different purposes: they served as souvenirs and amulets; among the Jews of Europe, they were used as a remembrance of the half shekel collected in the time of the Temple or used for charity or for observing the Mitzvah of gifts to the poor on Purim; some used them as the five coins for Pidyon Haben (Redemption of the Son).
This collection contains many types of Görlitz Shekels, from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (possibly even earlier; one coin is a variation of the Meysel-Shekel, a type of Görlitz Shekel sometimes dated 1584. The coin in this collection does not bear a date). Some of them are not recorded in the Kisch catalog (1941).
Several 19th century Görlitz Shekels in this collection were made in England and are inscribed with manufacturers' names. One of these coins is in the original cardboard box in which it was sold at the store of A. Bührer in London, with a label describing the coin as a copy of the Shekels of Judas Iscariot.
The collection also contains Masonic tokens, one side or both sides of which are designed as Görlitz Shekels. Some made in the USA; two counterfeit First Jewish-Roman War Shekels, presumably 19th century; a reproduction-medal of the Görlitz Shekel, dated 1999 [presumably issued by a Museum in Görlitz]; and more.
A total of 120 medals. Size and condition vary.
Literature:
1. Shekel Medals and False Shekels, by Bruno Kisch, New York, 1941. A printout from Historia Judaica, vol. III, no. 2.
2. The Third Side of the Coin (Hebrew), by Ya'akov Meshorer. Jerusalem: Yad Yitzchak ben Zvi, 2006.
3. The Coins of Palestine (Hebrew), Bank of Israel Collection, Catalog, by Aryeh Kindler. Jerusalem: Keter, 1971.