Subject: Coins of Sidon
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 11:53:04 +0200
From: Danny Syon <danny_bu@BEZEQINT.NET>
To: NUMISM-L@VM.SC.EDU

(Apologize for the cross-posting to Numism-L and Seleukids group)

Group,

I am currently working on a large group of coins from the excavations at
Gamla. Among others, I have a group of nine tiny coins - 9-10 mm in
diameter, badly corroded:
Obverse: Head of Tyche r. wearing turreted crown.
Reverse: Rudder l. Above and below: Phoenician inscription (most are
fragmentary, but all of them together deliver the goods): 'Of Sidon, mother
(i.e. metropolis, in the original sense of founding city) of Cambe, Hippo,
Kitium and Tyre'.
Quite an inscription for a small coin like that, not to mention the audacity
of the claim!

To the best of my knowledge, only one single similar coin is listed: in BMC
Phoenicia, p.156, No.91, and it is larger (not by much, though).
Demetrius I has a coin with an identical reverse, minted in Sidon, but
larger. Based on this, Hill (BMC) suggested that these were quasi-Autonomous
issues issued under Antiochus IV and Demetrius I, and thus dates them to the
period 175-150 BCE.
The findspot in the excavation does not help any in the dating.

I am trying to see if I should stick to this dating, or should I move it
forward to the first years of the true autonomy of Sidon in 112/1 BCE.

Has anyone come across similar coins, knows of any relevant literature, or
has any insights or comments in general?

Thanks,

Danny Syon
Israel Antiquities Authority
P.O.Box 1094
Akko 24110
Israel

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