Catalog
1/4 Shekel
| Issuer | Tyre |
|---|---|
| Year | 425 BC - 394 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | The Phoenician god Melkart is depicted in left profile astride a hippocamp galloping to the right, his extended left hand grasping a bow while his right hand holds the reins. The creature's muscular foreparts rise above a dotted wave line, beneath which a dolphin swims to the right, filling the exergual field. The composition is rendered in the bold, stylized manner characteristic of Phoenician engraving of the late fifth century BC. |
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| Mintage | ND (425 BC - 394 BC) |
| Additional information |
Tyre's fractional silver coinage of this period was produced under Achaemenid Persian suzerainty, when Phoenician city-states retained striking rights as semi-autonomous entities useful to the empire for their naval capacity and commercial reach. The shekel standard used at Tyre during the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC was tied closely to the Babylonian weight system rather than the Attic standard gaining ground elsewhere in the Mediterranean — a deliberate distinction that kept Tyrian trade terms on Phoenician footing.
The HGC 10#324 attribution places this piece within a tightly defined emission series. Sunrise 134 specimens tend to show relatively consistent die quality, unusual for fractional silver of this antiquity.