Famous series of replica coins: the Tire shekel

Between 126 and 5 a. C., the city of Tire recovered its autonomy from the Seleucid Empire. Tire began to issue a series of high quality silver tetradrachms called ‘shekels’. These Tyrian shekels became significant in Jewish and biblical history. From 4 a. C. until the fall of the Second Temple in 68 AD. C. these shekels of Tire in Jerusalem by Temple. Every Jew was required to pay the annual half-shekel tax to the Temple. Due to its weight and silver content, temple tax payments were made only in Tyrian shekels. It is the trade of the money changers that angered Jesus to change the tables of the money lenders. Since the Temple was exclusively the currency of Tyre, it is likely that Judas was paid thirty shekels of Tire to betray Jesus.

The basic design of the shekels made in Tire and later in Jerusalem remained unchanged. The obverse of the Tyrian shekel shows a beardless-headed laureate head of Melqarth (Hercules) facing right with a lion skin around the neck. The reverse shows an eagle standing left on a ship’s rostrum, carrying a palm tree under its wing. (Sear 5918)

Although this famous coin is rare, legal reproductions of the s. Reproductions of the Tire sehekels are available in cast lead-free pewter prints. In accordance with the Hobby Protection Act of 1973, the word COPY appears on the front of these legal reproductions.

The Tyrian shekel remains one of the most important coins in early Jewish and Christian history.