TYRE SILVER SHEKEL – ISSUE FROM THE LAST DECADE OF JESUS CHRIST’S LIFE – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK PHOECINIA COIN (Inv. 19726)

$2,700.00

19726. PHOENICIA. TYRE. 126/5 BC–ca. AD 65/6.
Silver Shekel, 14.12 g, 24 mm. Issue of an uncertain year in the last decade of CHRIST’S LIFETIME, likely Tyre Year 150 (AD 24/25).
Obv. Laureate head of Melkart right. Rev. TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY, eagle standing left on prow, PNZ (date) above club in left field, KP above control monogram in right field, uncertain Phoenician letter between legs.
DCA Tyre Supplement Release 2, 565 (same obverse die).
Ex Harlan J. Berk 171, October 2010, lot 189.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5, “uncertain year, AD 20s–30s.”

Because of the very schematic style of dies used to strike shekels during the latter part of Christ’s lifetime, the specific year is sometime difficult to make out as it is often composed of dots and dashes. However, a more precise chronological range is available from the obverse die that struck the coin. Here the obverse is encountered on coins of Tyre year 150 = AD 24/25 (Cohen, Tyre 2, 539) as well as year 157 = AD 31/32 (Cohen, Tyre 2, 565, 567–569). Given the similarity in form of the reverse control monogram to that illustrated by Cohen for year 150, it is likely that this emission may be placed at that time as well.