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A bronze coin of Elagabalus from Tyre in Phoenicia with a reverse showing a palm tree, a snake wound around a stone, and a murex shell. Coin Type: Bronze AE30 of Elagabalus, 218-222 CE.
Mint and Date: Tyre in Phoenicia, 218-222 CE
Size and Weight: 28mm x 30mm, 11.55g.
Obverse: IMP (...) AV AN-TONINVS AVG
Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind.
Reverse: TYRIORVM
Serpent entwined around ovoid baetyl; fruiting palm tree to left; murex shell to right.
Provenance: parvaneh81 (eBay), November 2009.
Ref: BMC Phoenicia pg. 278, 413.
BW Ref: 044 044 149
Click on the picture for a larger scale view of the coin

Note: The baetyl on this coin is an odd shape. It looks fat at its base, but then it seems to have been altered to a thinner shape for the middle and top, to allow space for the murex shell on its right.

The neck of the snake has been damaged, so that the head appears to float above it; this damage is on the coin, not the die.

The content of this page was last updated on 26 November 2009