| TYRE, Phoenicia, a silver Tetradrachm, often referred to as a "shekel" of Tyre. This lovely example is 31.5 mm/diameter, weighing 14.0 gms. This particular coin was priced and sold at $450.
The obverse of the coin shows the laureate head of Melqarth, the reverse an Eagle. It is dated to year 38 of Tyre which translates to 89/88 B.C. Ref: SG 5918; Historia Numorum, p. 799. |
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| Sear notes that in the centuries following the Macedonian conquest Tyre was subject first to the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt then, at the end of the 3rd century, to the Seleukids of Syria. In 126/5 B.C. the city regained its autonomy and commenced a remarkable issue of silver & bronze coins extending well into the Roman Imperial period.
These famous silver tetradrachms ("shekels") are prized by many as the most likely coinage with which Judas was paid his 'thirty pieces of silver' for the betrayal of Christ. |
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