PHOENICIA, Tyre. 126/5 BC-AD 65/6. AR Shekel (28.5mm, 14.10 g, 12h). Dated CY 3 (124/3 BC). Near EF.

Triton XXIX
Lot: 337. Estimated: $ 2 000

Greek, 12h, Coin-in-Hand Video, Silver

Sold For $ 5 500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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PHOENICIA, Tyre. 126/5 BC-AD 65/6. AR Shekel (28.5mm, 14.10 g, 12h). Dated CY 3 (124/3 BC). Head of Melkart right, wearing laurel wreath, [lion skin around neck] / Eagle standing left on prow; palm frond in background; to left, LΓ (date) above club; monogram and Phoenician B between legs; TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY around. DCA-Tyre 6 (same obv. die as illustration); HGC 10, 357; DCA2 946; BMC 48; Rouvier –. Attractively toned, a few minor marks. Near EF. High relief for type.

From the JTB Collection. Ex New York Sale LVII (10 January 2023), lot 88; Pars Coins inventory PCW-G7257.

One of the great cities of Phoenicia, Tyre was founded on an island just off the Levantine coast circa 2750 BC and rose to wealth and prominence from its extensive trade network and colonies, including Carthage. Effectively autonomous, it paid only tacit tribute to the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian Empires before Alexander the Great arrived in 332 BC. Confident in their defenses, the civic leaders offered only to remain neutral in the conflict and refused Alexander entry to its famous Temple of Melkart. When he tried negotiations again, his envoys were slain and thrown from the walls. Enraged, Alexander subjected Tyre to a titanic seven-month siege. The causeway he built from the mainland to the island citadel forever altered the city’s geography, turning the island into a peninsula. After taking savage reprisals on the city’s populace, he pardoned King Azemilkos and returned him to the throne as a client king to Macedon. Upon Alexander’s death in 323 BC, Tyre was subject first to the Ptolemies and then the Seleukids and was an important mint for both dynasties. The city received a grant of autonomy from the Seleukid crown in 126/5 BC. Tyre immediately inaugurated a new civic coinage dated to the era of its autonomy, with certain affinities to the coinage it had formerly minted for its royal masters. The civic silver featured a new obverse type, a head of the local god Melkart, but the reverse type of an eagle standing on a prow was identical to the reverse of Tyre’s Seleukid coinage, which in turn had been an elaboration on the Ptolemaic eagle. Tyrian shekels and half-shekels continued to be minted until about AD 66. They circulated in Judaea and were used by the Jews to pay their annual Temple dues. The infamous “30 pieces of silver” paid to Judas for betraying Jesus would also have been Tyrian issues.

The final winners of all Triton XXIX lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 13-14 January 2026.

Triton XXIX – Session Two – Lot 302-613 will be held Tuesday afternoon, 13 January 2026 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

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