PHOENICIA, Tyre. 126/5 BC-AD 65/6. AR Shekel (29.5mm, 14.40 g, 12h). Dated CY 35 (92/1 BC). Superb EF.

CNG Feature Auction 132
Lot: 517. Estimated: $ 1 500

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

Sold For $ 7 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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PHOENICIA, Tyre. 126/5 BC-AD 65/6. AR Shekel (29.5mm, 14.40 g, 12h). Dated CY 35 (92/1 BC). Head of Melkart right, wearing laurel wreath, [lion skin around neck] / Eagle standing left on prow; palm frond in background; to left, EΛ (date) above club; monogram to right, Phoenician A between legs. DCA-Tyre 123 (this coin illustrated); HGC 10, 357; DCA2 946. Iridescent tone, underlying luster. Superb EF.

From the Thomas Palmer Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Auctions III (29 April 1998), lot 182.

One of the great cities of Phoenicia, Tyre was subject to the Ptolemies and later the Seleukids, being an important mint for both dynasties. In 126/5 BC, Tyre received a grant of autonomy from the Seleucid crown and immediately inaugurated a civic coinage dated to the new era. The civic silver featured an obverse head of the local god Melqart, and the reverse type of an eagle standing on a prow, a version of which had already appeared on Ptolemaic and Seleukid issues of the Tyre mint. Tyrian shekels and half-shekels were minted in large numbers for nearly the next two centuries and circulated widely in nearby Judaea, where, due to their attested purity, they were prescribed by the Jewish authorities as the coins used by Jews to pay their annual Temple dues. In 1982, Ya’akov Meshorer speculated that the Tyrian issues after 18 BC, nearly all with a KP mintmark, were actually struck in Jerusalem; this theory has been widely disputed and is now in disfavor, although it is likely the primary purpose for which the Tyrian silver coinage of the early to mid first century CE was struck was to facilitate payment of the Temple tax. The New Testament “30 pieces of silver” supposedly paid to Judas for betraying Jesus would almost certainly have been Tyrian issues.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.

CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session Two – Lot 319-587 will be held Monday afternoon, 18 May 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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