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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Terence Cheesman, post: 7340869, member: 86498&quot;]During the later half of the second century BC to the first half of the first century BC most of the cities on the Levantine coast broke away from the crumbling Seleukid Kingdom. Many of these cities subsequently began to mint silver tetradrachms and their fractions but only three, Askalon Tyre and Sidon minted coins on the old Ptolemaic standard. This is a map that I had created but never used to illustrate this phenomenon.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1281162[/ATTACH]&nbsp; Only the mints shaded in light purple used the old Ptolemaic standard though by now even that was reduced. To show that they continued with that standard they employed the standing eagle reverse. However by the mid first century BC&nbsp; both Askalon and Sidon gave up on the production of silver coins though Sidon did mint some drachms intermittently up to mid first century AD. Thus only Tyre appears to mint silver which it did up to about circa 65/66 AD. As this was really the only regional silver coin available in any number, coupled with the fact that the purity remained high, the coin was accepted.</p><p>Tyre Ar Tetradrachm 114/113 BC Obv head of Herakles-Melkart&nbsp; laureate with slight drapery around neck. Rv Eagle standing left wings folded on prow of galley. HGC 357 Cohen DCA Tyre 2.13 This coin illustrated 14.29 grms 28 mm Photo by W. Hansen&nbsp; [ATTACH=full]1281161[/ATTACH] I have seen some research attempting to show that the image of Herakles Melkart was derived from some of the earlier Seleukid royal portraits but to be honest I really cannot see it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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