Shekel Of Tyre

This week, I purchased a Tetradrahm from the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre. It is basically a large, silver coin with a denomination of 4 drahms. Tetradrahms weight as much as an ancient unit of measure known as a shekel.

What made the Shekels minted in Tyre of great importance to the ancient world is the fact that they were purer in silver content than other coins of that era. Because of this fact, they became the coin of choice when trading with other nations and it essentially can be considered the first "Trade Dollar". Moreover, because of the purity and respect for the Shekels minted in Tyre, it became the coin of choice for paying the temple tax in Jerusalem so is of great religious significance. A didram, or half a shekel, covered the tax for one person whereas a full shekel covered the tax for two persons.

These shekels were minted for about a couple centuries with very little change in design. The following design I purchased was minted in regnal year 185 which corresponds to 128/127 BC. It bears the image of Demetrius II Nikator when Tyre was under subjugation to the Seleucid Empire. Following the assignation of Demetrius II Nikator, Tyre regained sovereignty.

Nevertheless, very little changed in the design of the Shekel after his death. The bust of Melqarth which replaced the bust of Demetrius II Nikator, which is shown below, looks very similar in style. Also, the date is shown to the left of the eagle on reverse, the right side of the coin. Once Tyre regained its sovereignty, it not only changed the bust on the obverse but also changed the location of the date from the right side of the reverse to the left side of the coin. The Melqarth Tetradrahms were minted in Tyre from 126 BC to 5 BC and later on in Jerusalem, although the Jerusalem Shekels lacked the quality that the Tyre mint produced.

The following are a couple bonus images for your enjoyment. These were taken in the 1990's when I visited Tyre. The first image is the large Arch and the second image is an ancient sidewalk. The street is to the right and to the left (not shown) is where the hippodrome of Tyre is located.