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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. Perhaps this was caused by a double strike.

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 31 July 2013