Description:
In ancient Jerusalem there was a chronic lack of quality silver coins. The only city nearby which produced them was Tyre, a coastal city in present-day Lebanon known for the production of a rare and expensive purple dye known as Tyrian purple. In the time of King David, circa 1000 BC, a friendly alliance was entered into between the kingdoms of Israel and Tyre. As a hub of commerce, Tyre produced many coins and in Jerusalem the shekel became the primary silver coin. Because of the high silver purity (94% or more), the shekel was the coin required by the Romans in payment for the Jewish Temple tax in Jerusalem.
This ancient shekel of Tyre was minted in 95-94 BC, year 32 from the year Tyre declared itself independent from the Seleucid Empire. The obverse side shows the head of Melquarth, the Semitic equivalent of the hero Hercules. The reverse shows an eagle standing, representing the powerful military and commercial fleets owned by the Tyrians.
According to the gospel accounts, before the Last Supper, Judas went to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for thirty silver coins. Jesus is then arrested in Gethsemane, where Judas reveals Jesus' identity to the soldiers by giving him a kiss. Judas is consumed by remorse and returns the money to the chief priests before hanging himself. It is the shekel, that historians have identified as the coin in which Judas would have been paid the famous "Thirty Pieces of Silver" for his betrayal of Jesus.
