TYRE SILVER SHEKEL – YEAR 153 OVERDATE ON YEAR 151 RRR CHRIST LIFETIME ISSUE OF AD 27/8 – NGC XF GREEK PHOENICIA BIBLICAL COIN (Inv. 21533)

$7,500.00

21533. PHOENICIA. TYRE.
Silver Shekel, 13.98 g, 23 mm. CHRIST LIFETIME issue dated Tyre year 153 (AD 27/8).
Obv. Laureate head of Melkart right. Rev. ΤΥΡΟΥ ΙΕΡΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΣΥΛΟΥ, eagle standing left on prow, PNΓ/PN (overdate) above club in left field, Phoenician letter B between legs.
DCA Tyre Supplement Release 2, 548 (same obverse die, in earlier state where the die crack is less prominent).
NGC XF, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5, large die crack across the cheek, characteristic of this obverse die in its later stages of use.

The date on this shekel is remarkable because it is an extremely rare example of date recutting on an ancient Tyrian coin die. When it was first used, the die carried the date PNA (civic era year 151 = AD 25/6), but when it struck the present shekel, it had a retrograde gamma added beside the N to make the date PNΓ (civic era year 153 = AD 27/8). Cohen noted a case of year 153 over 151 in DCA Tyre (no. 546), but this involved a different die. As we now seem to have two dies with the same recut dates, it suggests that the mint of Tyre needed to press older dies into service in AD 27/8, either due to initial problems obtaining new year 153 dies, a need to replace unexpectedly broken dies dated 153, or increased production in that year. One wonders whether demand for Tyrian shekels for use in Judaea may have jumped in AD 27/8. In this year, Pontius Pilate seized the money in the treasury of the Jerusalem Temple (all of which was Tyrian, in accordance with Jewish religious law) to finance a new aqueduct to improve Jerusalem’s water supply. Coincidentally, shekels such as the present coin probably entered circulation in Judaea at the same time that Jesus began his three-year public ministry.