David Hendin has a shekel with the "Jerusalem" mint mark above what is said to be a monogram of Herod.
I'm not sure what/where this is, but I would be interested to see. Could it be the
shekel with the "KP"
monogram which is the
type ascribed to Herod/Jerusalem by some?
Meshorer's argument that the later/KP
type shekels were minted in Jerusalem has several points. Would Herod, an important
King of the East, not have minted silver, while other
contemporary rules did-like
Aretas IV of
Nabataea? The
style of the shekels changed to include cruder
style and smaller flans while maintaining the relatively high silver content while other coins of the era were becoming debased. The coins saw the addition of the "KP"
monogram around 18 B.C.. Around this same time, other cities in the East which
had produce
Seleucid or autonomous silver coins either ceased production, or began to produce
Roman provincial silver coins. I'm not an expert on Judaism or
Jewish law, but I understand the Mishna also required the
Temple Tax be paid in pure silver, and specifically gives the example of Tyrian currency. Finally, the production of
Tyrian shekels ended in 65/66 A.D. which corresponds with the
Jewish revolt but has no meaning to Tyre.
In an article "One Hundred Ninety Years of
Tyrian Shekels" (Studies in
Honor of Leo Mildenburg
Numismatics, Art
History, Archeology Wetteren, 1984, pp. 171-180),
Meshorer generally cites some archaeological evidence that early shekels were found primarily in Lebanon, while later shekels were found in the Judaea-Samaria-Galilee
area.
It appears Mesheror reached the conclusion the later shekels were minted in Jerusalem later in
his carrer. In an article from 1978, he notes the shekels of Tyre were minted in Tyre until about 65 A.D. at which time he states
Nero issued debased
provincial tetradrachmas from the
mint in
Antioch. (The
Holy Land in Coins, March 1978,
Biblical Archaeology Society). With debased silver flooding the land, there was no way more pure silver could compete (if you could buy the same goods for debased versus pure silver, why use the pure silver). He notes the last 50 years of
Tyrian shekels exhibit stylistic alterations which indicate they may have originated from a different
mint, and
Meshorer notes "some scholars" suggest they were minted by
Jewish authorities in Jerusalem.
A lot of Meshorer's points for Jerusalem minting of
Tyrian shekels make sense. I was looking for more archeolgical evidence when I
ran accross these articles, but archeogical evidence isn't what I was able to find. As for the archealgical evidence mentioned by
Meshorer, I don't doubt
Tyrian shekels were found in and around
Judaea whereever they were minted. Even if they were minted in Tyre, the assumption is they are for use to pay Temple obligations (not just the
Temple Tax, but also Pidyon Ha-Ben), and so they would have ended up in areas with dense
Jewish settlements. Even given all that, my initial concern remains, if you are going to
mint your own coins, why not put your
symbols on them? Why continue using, not just a graven image, but the image of another city's god? Why not "Jerusalem the holy" instead of Tyre?