Shekels Of Tyre Among The Most Popular Of Ancient Coins

CoinWorld - Among the most popular types of ancient coins are shekels of Tyre, the main silver coinage of a powerful maritime city in ancient Phoenicia. Though desired for many reasons, shekels of Tyre are especially famous as the most likely candidate for the "30 pieces of silver" paid to Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ.



Their strong biblical connection keeps interest in these coins extremely high, regardless of how collectors' tastes otherwise may change with the passage of time. The half shekels of Tyre are also consistently in high demand, as they are believed to have been the standard coin by which annual payments were made to the Temple in Jerusalem.

In about the mid-fifth century B.C. Tyre began to produce an independent silver coinage that persisted until the city was sacked in 332 B.C. by the Macedonian King Alexander III "the Great" (336 to 323 B.C.). Alexander rebuilt Tyre, and thereafter silver coins were struck there under the aegis of Macedonian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid kings who controlled the region from the late fourth through the late second centuries B.C.

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