Got 9 coins from the pick bin and I am enjoying attributing these. This one was really difficult, it took me many hours but I think I nailed it. I picked it because the reverse legend is clearly legible even though the obverse is very worn. Pseudo-autonomous civic coinage. Æ Dichalkus Phoenicia, Tyre, Time of Trajan, year 241 = 115/116 AD 23.7 x 23 mm; 10.151 g Rouvier 2224; BMC 294-295; Babelon 2153 Ob.: Laureate head of Melqart to right, lion skin knotted at neck Rev.: MHTPO/ΠOΛEWΣ (metropolis) club surmounted by Tyre monogram TYP, date AME, Phoenician script לצר “of Tyre” at r. All in oak wreath "The club had been a symbol of Tyre for centuries, and is the attribute of Melqart par excellence. The combination of obverse head and reverse club that was popularized under the Seleucids continued in a stylistically similar form in the Roman period, with issues that date until the rule of Commodus. This coin type is fairly standardized, with little variation over the centuries, which is unsurprising given the symbolic nature of the design where the emphasis is on the readily identifiable symbol. The absence of an obverse portrait of the ruler makes this one of Tyre’s ‘pseudo-autonomous’ coins, where the image of the emperor was replaced by a local deity, in this case by Melqart. His hair is short and curled, and he is crowned with a laurel wreath. A lion-skin is knotted around the god’s neck, although in a considerable number of specimens it is absent, either due to corrosion caused by its placement on the edge of the coin, or in some cases may have been accidentally struck off the flan entirely. The civic title of metropolis is also celebrated as MHTPO, and although the legend is written in Greek, the Greek language would have been more widely understood than Latin in the region at this time. In the context of the wider Roman empire, the title of metropolis enhanced the status of a city, and it appears that Tyre had used the title since the rule of Trajan, before it was officially confirmed by Hadrian. Tyre could lay claim to the title through the traditional meaning of ‘mother-city’ due to its historical reputation of sending out colonists who founded eminent cities such as Carthage, but, under Roman control, the term became a political title that could be used to indicate the high status of a city – albeit one that could also be withdrawn to reflect a fall from favor. Not only was Tyre promoting its status through Roman political institutions, both the inscription and club were enclosed within a corona civica, an unmistakably Roman symbol of power and virtue." Quoted from Webster, Olivia, “Identity, Religion and Empire: The Civic Coins of Roman Phoenicia”, Thesis Doctor of Philosophy, University of Nothingham, August 2018 Please share the coins you got from a pick bin and enjoyed attributing
