TYRE SILVER SHEKEL – YEAR 176 (AD 50/51) ISSUE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE – MINT STATE NGC GRADED GREEK BIBLICAL PROVENANCED COIN (Inv. 21476)

$11,000.00

21476. PHOENICIA. TYRE.
Silver Shekel, 14.18 g, 25 mm. Issue dated Tyre year 176 (AD 50/1).
Obv. Laureate head of Melkart right. Rev. TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY, eagle standing left on prow, POς (date) above club in left field, CA control monogram in right field, Phoenician letter A between legs.
DCA Tyre Supplement Release 2, 661–662 var.
Ex Michael Beall Collection, privately acquired from Jonathan Kern in 2014.
NGC MINT STATE, Strike 5/5, Surface 3/5, a specimen from the Apostolic Age with exceptional detail throughout.

This particular control monogram appears unattested and is an intermediary form between Cohen 661 (EA) and 662 (CAO). It seems that during this year the controls began using an initial epsilon (E) but subsequently morphed it into a form lacking the central horizontal line and hence resembling a modern C, which was then combined with various letters: CA (this coin), CAO (Cohen 662) and CAP (Cohen 665).