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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 3038326, member: 56859&quot;]Nice video!</p><p><br /></p><p>Murex shells are devices on coins of ancient Phoenicia.&nbsp; Here&#039;s a writeup of a shekel, including some anecdotes about Tyrian purple excerpted below:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-a-coin-from-the-purple-people.250752/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-a-coin-from-the-purple-people.250752/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-a-coin-from-the-purple-people.250752/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The murex shell represents Phoenicia’s namesake and prized product: purple dye. Manufactured from decomposed sea snails, the resulting purple dye is remarkably colorfast. Items dyed with Tyrian Purple in ancient times still retain their color today. Historical records indicate Phoenician purple dye was worth its weight in silver in some trading locales. Royal purple indeed; you’d have to be wealthy to afford a purple garment.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mythologic tradition credits the discovery this dye to Herakles’s dog. Per second century mythographer Julius Pollox, Herakles was strolling on the beach and noticed his dog chewing on a rotting murex snail. The dog’s mouth was stained vibrant purple.<a href="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ae43f8_0d628c3a6ded41efba1757cc897db7aa.jpg_srz_p_512_426_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/ae43f8_0d628c3a6ded41efba1757cc897db7aa.jpg_srz_p_512_426_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz" rel="nofollow">Rubens painted the scene</a> but apparently he didn’t study marine biology. The sea snail in this painting is a nautilus, not a murex.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/phoeniciabyblosdishekel-1000-jpg.350736/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><b>PHOENICIA, Byblos. Uzzibaal. 350-335 BC*</b></p><p><b>AR dishekel, 13.3 gm</b></p><p>Obv: Three hoplites with shields in war galley left, roaring lion&#039;s head on prow, waves below galley; hippocamp left below, with murex shell below it; Z O (N O?) in field</p><p>Rev: Phoenician inscription*; lion attacking bull left</p><p>Ref: SNG Copenhagen 132, BMC 26.95, 4.</p><p>acquired August 2014[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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