Description

This coin comes from a silver mint in Tyre, a large port city in Phoenicia (now Lebanon) which was among the first cities in the region to strike its own coinage. Considered one of the most popular coins in the Bible, it was probably 30 of these pieces of silver (possibly in combination with the Stater of Antioch coins) that Judas was given to betray Jesus to the authorities. It was also the most favorable coin for the men to pay their “Temple Tax” every year. Obverse shows a Laureated head of Melkarth, a Phoenician god in the form of the Greek god Hercules. The reverse has an eagle standing on a ship’s prow with a palm branch in the background. The legend in Greek reads “Tyre Sacred and Inviolable Sanctuary.” The club is a symbol of Melkarth.
An Exact Replica
BC-2
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