ChXF Year 68, Extremely rare year for Tyre Shekel. Published by Ed Cohen in DCA

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

ChXF Year 68, Extremely rare year for Tyre Shekel. Published by Ed Cohen in DCA:
$1188.00

68 Shekel of Tyre Year 68 R3 (59-58 BC), the rarest of Shekels. Phoenicia, Tyre ca 2nd Century BC to 1st Century AD. AR Shekel or Tetradrachm 13.3g Tyre mint issued 61-61BC. Laureate head of Melgarth right, rev eagle standing left with closed wings. Deeply toned XF, variety double struck showing part on another coin. S-5918.

The Shekel of Tyre is the denomination mentioned in the bible, which most scholars agree was used to pay Judas. Thirty Shekels of Tyre was a great deal of money at that time, although some say that for the enormity of the crime he committed, it was nothing.

This is an extremely rare shekel. It’s deep bronze toning seems to speak to it’s elegance and pride. Whoever purchases this shekel gets not only a very rare shekel, but one that Edward Cohen, the premier authority in the field of Shekels of Tyre, chose to include in his newly released, Dated Coins of Antiquity, Release 2. It is plate number 234 on page 126. A published coin is normally a more desirable one, and usually has greater value. In the new text, many coin years have up to four coins pictured in the book. CY68 has just two, this one and one other. This goes along with the known rarity of shekels of this year. The coin carries a rarity rating of R3, the rarest group of Shekels of Tyre.

To expand on the rarity of this coin, please note that Shekels of Tyre are all dated. That is one of the most interesting things about them. Most of them are from common dates. Some are more scarce than that, and are designated (S) for scarce. There are other dates that are even more rare and are exciting to find. The rare shekels run from the least rare (R1) to the quite rare (R2) to the rarest of the rare, the R3. Typically not more than two R3 shekels are seen at sale or in sales in any ten year period.

So, against all those odds, we found this very nice shekel in Australia This year 68 shekel has a wonderful reverse. You can actually see the eye balls of the eagle, bulging. The date and the monogram are easily identified, as is the Phoenician letter between the eagles leg. There’s a small chip broken off the edge of this shekel. It was a very thin area where a double strike created a portion of a second shekel. This sale includes the coin and the tiny chip, which is so small that it doesn’t seem to affect the weight of the coin, which at 13.3g, is within the average weights for Shekels of Tyre.

NGC has authenticated and graded this coin. It received the Ch XF grade AFTER it was broken. It was not placed in a capsule, since it may be fragile. We do have the NGC certificate for the buyer and it’s among the photos on this listing. You will notice that NGC, despite the edge breakage, graded the coin as Ch XF - that’s quite an amazing grade for a coin with a chip defect.

Trivia for those who read this far: 59 BC was the year that the first newspaper was published. The publisher was none other than Julius Caesar. It contained notices of births, deaths, marriages, appointments, promotions, Senatorial matters as well as lighter fare, including sports. The results of the gladiatorial games and the chariot races were regularly reported.