“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.”

Augustus ordered a census of the entire empire for tax purposes. This meant everyone had to return to their ancestral town to register. It is the reason Mary and Joseph travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Augustus ruled from Rome and never visited Judaea. This bronze coin was minted during his reign and would have circulated widely across the empire.