Laureate bust of Melkart right; [lion skin around neck] / TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY, Eagle standing left on prow, palm over right wing; to left, PM (date) above club; KAP to the right. Dated CY 140 (14/15 CE). 20mm, 6.35 grams. Mint of Jerusalem. DCA Tyre 530; DCA 922; HGC 10, 358.

From the old personal collection of Mark Fishman.

KAP on the reverse, likely means "Power to the Romans" or an abbreviation for KAICAP ("Caesar").

The “piece of silver” mentioned in the New Testament-most likely referring to Tyrian shekels-embodied both religious duty and cultural symbolism. Minted in the Phoenician city of Tyre, these coins bore on the obverse the deity Melqart (a local counterpart of Herakles) and on the reverse an eagle accompanied by the inscription “of Tyre the holy and inviolable.” Their high silver purity and acceptance for the Temple tax in Jerusalem made them uniquely significant and these coins widely circulated in ancient Judaea. Thus, when Judas betrayed Jesus for “thirty pieces of silver”, it was almost certainly these very coins - charged with sacrificial, monetary, and narrative weight in early Christian history.