PHOENICIA: Tyre, AE shekel (14.24g), year 154 (28/9 AD), DCA-920, DCA Tyre-552 (same obverse die), laureate head of Melkart right // eagle standing left, palm frond over right wing, PNΔ (date) above club to left, K(P) to right, reverse with die shift and somewhat off-center, attractive surfaces with traces of mint luster, very rare date, issued during the lifetime of Christ, Strike 3/5, Surface 5/5, NGC graded XF

NOTE: This coin was submitted to NGC for grading after the auction went to print due to time constraints. There, it was attributed with an "uncertain date after 19 BC". In our opinion, the date on the reverse can be established as Civil Year 154 (expressed as PNΔ in Greek numerals) with a high degree of certainty. The letters P (100), situated right above the end of the club, and Δ (4), just before the eagle, are clear and require no further explanation. The middle digit is rendered as an indistinct vertical stroke, though its identity can be elucidated by die comparisons. The obverse die is the same as DCA Tyre-552, which is clearly dated 154 though with a different reverse die. It is also identical to the obverse of DCA Tyre-683, an example with a blundered date from the Isfiya Hoard, which was discovered on Mount Carmel in 1960 and contained some 3400 Tyrian shekels among other coins. Cohen (p.341) notes that these crudely engraved shekels of this hoard frequently have M (40) or N (50) in their date. Indeed, a survey of the examples pictured in DCA Tyre finds a number of shekels featuring a Melkart with unusually crude, low-relief facial features (e.g. a lidless dot-like eye, a floating nose) around the decade of CY 150's but in no other periods. These characteristics thus squarely place this coin in this decade and establishes its precise date.

Estimate: USD 300 - 400