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The Temple Tax Coin, Tyre KP Type Half Shekel, Jerusalem or Tyre Mint, 18 - 69 A.D.
Half Shekel - the currency of the Jerusalem Temple. Under Rome, the silver coinage of Tyre was debased. Some experts believe that, to provide coins with the silver purity required for the temple tax, Herod the Great received permission from Augustus to strike "Tyre" shekels in Jerusalem. The shekels that date from PH (18/17 B.C.) to PKE (69 A.D.) have cruder style and fabric, and the letters KP or KAP (for KAICAP, Greek for Caesar) to the right of the eagle. Wherever they were struck, these later shekels seem to have been struck specifically for the Temple tax. Typical of some shekels struck after 40 A.D., this specimen has a blundered legend and obscure date, due at least in part to extremely worn and perhaps repeatedly re-engraved dies.JD99227. Silver half shekel, cf. HGC 10 358; Cohen DCA 922; RPC I 4686 ff., Prieur 1442 ff.; BMC Phoenicia p. 252, 235 ff.; Rouvier 2104 ff., VF, debased style, dark toning, light marks, irregular flan shape, edge split, Tyre or Jerusalem mint, weight 6.943g, maximum diameter 20.5mm, die axis 0o, c. 40 - 69 A.D.; obverse laureate head of Melqart right, lion's skin knotted around neck; reverse TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY (of Tyre the holy and inviolable), eagle standing left, head left, wings closed, right talon on war galley ram, palm frond transverse right behind, obscure year over club left, KP over monogram right, Aramaic letter between legs; SOLD
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