Posted 02/08/2010 09:00 am
As with many "biblical coins", there is academic debate among researchers and archaeologists about exactly which coins the "thirty pieces" might have been. Coin dealers don't like debate; they want to pick one coin type and say, "this is it", so they can sell it to biblical coin collectors.
The "usual candidate" is the didrachm of Tyre, a Phoenician city which issued a series of dated "shekels" from long before the time of Christ to long afterwards; coins actually dated from around the time of Christ are, naturally, the most highly valued. This one is dated RNQ in Greek alpha-numerals, translating to Year 159 in the Tyrian calendar or 32/33 AD; it sold for US$1265. Otherwise identical coins with much earlier or much later dates can be bought for only a couple of hundred dollars; This one dated to 98/7 BC sold for $450. A classic case of the "Bible Effect" - a coin with a biblical connection being much more expensive than an equally rare and attractive coin without such a connection.
The "usual candidate" is the didrachm of Tyre, a Phoenician city which issued a series of dated "shekels" from long before the time of Christ to long afterwards; coins actually dated from around the time of Christ are, naturally, the most highly valued. This one is dated RNQ in Greek alpha-numerals, translating to Year 159 in the Tyrian calendar or 32/33 AD; it sold for US$1265. Otherwise identical coins with much earlier or much later dates can be bought for only a couple of hundred dollars; This one dated to 98/7 BC sold for $450. A classic case of the "Bible Effect" - a coin with a biblical connection being much more expensive than an equally rare and attractive coin without such a connection.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
