The Search for a State

Available for over a year

An over-printed coin from 2nd century Jerusalem tells of the failed attempt of Shimon bar Kokhba to lay claim to a state for the Jews, free from Roman rule - while a white cotton flag, framed in pale blue, flew over Sudan after it had been taken by Mahdist forces and before the Islamic state collapsed in the mid 1890s. (Photo: An over-printed coin from second Century Jerusalem. Credit: Trustees of the British Museum)