Probably a similar motivation. The Athenian analogy is a
good one. And it has been argued that the folded Athenian
fabric coins became accepted as the norm, a badge of integrity, so that this mode of
flan production became a longer term identifying characteristic (equivalent to a brand in modern parlance) of the
mint, trusted by the populace among whom the folded owls circulated.
So it was with the smaller
diameter Tyre shekels? Speculatively, I suggest that the mandating of this coin
type as payment for temple dues may have reinforced the persistence of the smaller
diameter mintage, distinguishing it from the more usual larger
diameter tetradrachm coinages of the period and giving it an aura of greater legitimacy, harking back to a previous era.