Ancient biblical SHEKEL OF TYRE, "30 PIECES OF SILVER"

Dated year 159 - 33/34 C.E.
Obverse: laureate head of Melqart facing right, wearing knotted lionskin around neck

Reverse: Eagle standing lt. with rt. foot on prow of ship, palm branch over rt. shoulder, date and club in field to left. Surrounded by crude inscription "OF TYRE THE HOLY AND INVIOLABLE"

TRADITIONAL YEAR OF THE CRUCFIXION

Measurements: 22 mm – 14.6 grams

A classic coin for Christian collectors. CLEARLY dated and fully centered on a large flan with good metal and great style! About as nice a crucifixion year coin that you will ever find!! These coins bearing the "KP" monogram were postulated by Y. Meshorer to have been minted in Jerusalem. Today many contemporary scholars disagree but place the location at different mints either in Phoenicia or Israel Originally, the silver shekels, both the full and half shekels, were produced in the city of Tyre. By the half century before the birth of Christ, they had become the predominant coin in the Judaeo-Phoenician area of the world. After Rome occupied Israel, Israel was no longer authorized to mint their own currency. Since the Jewish Talmud required the Temple tax to be paid with a coin of high purity of silver, the Tyre shekels and half shekels were the only acceptable coins available that met Jewish law requirement.

Judas' 30 Pieces of Silver - Matthew 26:14-15 "Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, 'What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?' And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver." -- Matthew 26:14-15. Shekels of Tyre were the only currency accepted at the Jerusalem Temple and are the most likely coinage with which Judas was paid for the betrayal of Christ. The silver shekels and half-shekels of Tyre were minted from c. 126 B.C. until c. 57 A.D. Any coin minted prior to 34 A.D. may have circulated in Jerusalem during Jesus' lifetime.

The Temple Tax Coin "...go to the sea and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou has opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them [the temple tax collectors] for me and thee." Since the tax was one half shekel per man the coin would have to be a shekel to pay the tax for both Jesus and Peter. Matthew 17:24-27