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Message:: [QUOTE="GinoLR, post: 26079288, member: 128351"]Two small coins of Sidon : [ATTACH=full]1661395[/ATTACH]On this 5th c. BCE AR 8 mm 1/8 of shekel, we see the Persian overlord on obverse (or perhaps some male local deity figured like the Persian king) and on reverse a war galley with a line of shields, the kind that fought in Salamis, and city walls with towers in the background. This could be seen as a view of Sidon military harbour, but a much later coin will explain this type otherwise. Here is a 1st c. AD AE 12 of Sidon minted under Domitian. [ATTACH=full]1661396[/ATTACH] On the obverse, a veiled Tyche wearing the usual turreted crown. On reverse a war galley. The legend : ΣΙΔΩΝΟΣ ΘΕΑΣ ("of the Sidonian Goddess"), ΗϘΡ (year 198 of the local era = 87/8 AD), ΑϚ (below) (1st semester). The war galley of the 1st coin is still there, but 5 centuries later it's a galley of a later type. The city-walls are still there too, they are now the Tyche's turreted crown. The legend explains the galley : it is not a reference to Sidon's navy but the ceremonial galley of Astarte, the "Sidonian Goddess" - always this Oriental reluctance for naming a god... More than 5 centuries later, the city of Sidon still minted coins with the same types and symbols...[/QUOTE]