Sidon, Phoenicia Persian Empire Rare AR Quarter Shekel Circa 365 BC Ancient Greek Silver Coin Museum Reproduction CSGDS0031

The Persian or Achaemenid Empire (c. 550 – 330 B.C.) was the largest empire in ancient history extending across Asia, Africa and Europe, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of Central Asia, Asia Minor, Thrace and Macedonia, much of the Black Sea coastal regions, Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine and Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and much of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya.

Originally the shekel was a unit of weight for means of payment in gold and silver. In the third millennium b.c.e. one already finds this unit of weight in Babylonia, weighing there 8.4 grams; it was divided into 24 giru. 60 Babylonian shekels were a mina and 60 mina a biltu. The shekel as a unit of weight for gold is mentioned in Genesis 24:22 and Joshua 7:21 (for the shekel as a unit of weight for silver, see Gen. 23:16; ii Sam. 14:26; ii Kings 15:20; Zech. 11:12–13).
There were two standards of shekel weights, namely the Babylonian and the Phoenician. Both standards had a heavy and light system: Babylonian – heavy, 22.0–23.0 grs.; light, 11.0–11.5 grs; Phoenician – heavy, 14.5–15.3 grs.; light, 7.3–7.7 grs.
The shekel weight during the First Temple period relates to the light Babylonian system. In the fourth century b.c.e. Phoenician silver coins, such as the Sidonian double shekel and Tyrian stater, circulated in Ereẓ Israel. The former, whose average weight was 26.43 grams, relates to the Phoenician heavy weight, though being somewhat lighter. It may be compared with the Tyrian staters of that period, which are of an average weight of 12.9 grams, two of which would approximate the Sidonian double shekel.
Ptolemy ii (285–246 b.c.e.) reformed this coinage by reducing the weight of the tetradrachm from the Attic standard (17.46 g.) to the Phoenician standard (14.30 g.). Thus, the tradition of the Phoenician shekel was kept alive and adopted later by the city of Tyre, which issued shekels from 126 b.c.e. until about 56 c.e. These had an average weight of 14.2 grams and were of good silver.
DESIGN:
Obverse side
Phoenician penteconter left; figure standing left at prow, standard at stern; crescent above; || ||| (date) above crescent; three series of waves below
Legend:
Anepigraphic

Reverse side
Persian king and driver in chariot drawn by two horses left; Phoenician monogram above
Legend:
Anepigraphic

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