Artifact
Widow's Mite — Lepton
103–76 BC, circulating 1st c. AD · Bronze · Hendin 1150
Authentic ancient coin
MARK 12:41–44
“A poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Jesus said: she gave more than all the others.”
The lepton was the smallest monetary denomination in use in Roman-period Judaea, minted originally under the Hasmonaean king Alexander Jannaeus and circulating for over a century after. Two specimens are displayed because the Gospel specifically states two coins. The object is not the coin but the proportion: the widow's gift represented everything she possessed. This was Jesus's last public teaching before the events of the Passion began.
