Lot 238
Phoenicia, Tyre. Silver 1/4 Shekel (3.28 g), ca. 126/5 BC-AD 65/6. Year 2 (125/4 BC). Laureate bust of Melkart right. Rev. TYPOY IEP[AΣ K]AI AΣYΛOY, eagle standing left on prow, palm on far wing; in left field, date (L B) and club; in right field, M monogram; lacking Phoenician letter be-tween eagle's legs. (DCA 923; DCA Suppl. 6.1 (this coin).) An extremely rare denomination for the series. Toned. Choice very fine. Estimate $2,500UP
Ex Freeman & Sear (March 10, 1991), lot 226.
Ex Superior (May 31,1988), lot 1559.
In the introduction to his extensive catalogue of Tyre's final silver coinage, the famous Melkart/Eagle series, Cohen states "[this] first photographic supplement to DCA is by no means complete. It encompasses 589 different varieties of these coins, defined by their varying dates, monograms, Phoenician letters and four denominations in silver. These include pho-tographs for 365 shekels, 104 half shekels, 3 quarter shekels and 2 eighth shekels" (p. 9). These numbers serve to illustrate more than just the varieties of the coins; they indicate the extreme rarity of the smaller fractional issues as a type, with Tyrian 1/4 shekels being only 0.82% as common as shekels, and the even rarer 1/8 shekels being on 0.55% as common. Also of interest is that all Melkart/Eagle series issues have a Phoenician letter between the eagle's legs, either aleph or bet with the single exception of this 1/4 shekel, which is lacking any letter in that position.
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| Realized $8,260 |
