TYRE SILVER SHEKEL – FIRST YEAR ISSUE OF THE KP CONTROL / JERUSALEM MINT ISSUES – VF NGC GRADED GREEK PHONECIA COIN (Inv. 20160)

$2,800.00

20160. PHOENICIA. TYRE.
Silver Shekel, 14.22 g, 27 mm. Issue of Tyre year 113 (14/3 BC).
Obv. Laureate head of Melkart right. Rev. ΤΥΡΟΥ ΙΕΡΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΣΥΛΟΥ, eagle standing left on prow, PIΓ (date) above club in left field, KP above HZ control monogram in right field, Phoenician letter B between eagle’s legs.
DCA Tyre Supplement Release 2, 416 (same obverse die)
NGC graded VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5, a rare and seldom seen emission from the first year where the KP control was introduced on Tyrian coinage.

Ya’akov Meshorer argued that a shift to dumpier flans and the introduction of the KP control were indicative of the transfer of minting operations of the Tyrian shekel to Jerusalem in the late first century BC. He claimed that the KP control should be resolved as kratos romaiwn (“power of the Romans”) as a sign that Herod the Great was striking the coins under the authority of the Romans for use in payment of taxes to the Jerusalem Temple. Following Exodus 30:11–16, every adult Jewish male was required to make an annual payment of a half shekel towards the upkeep of the Temple. Meshorer’s theory has been heavily disputed and his resolution of the KP control is not generally accepted. However, most critics do accept the possibility that the late Tyrian shekels may have been struck at Jerusalem to facilitate the needs of the Temple.