Phoenicia, Tyre. Shekel; Phoenicia, Tyre; c. 40s AD, Shekel, 14.11g. Obv: Laureate head of Melqart r. Rx: Eagle standing l. with r. foot on prow and palm branch over shoulder, Phoenician letter between legs; club and uncertain date in l. field, KP above monogram in r. field. Y. Meshorer introduced the engaging notion that all Tyrian shekels and half shekels from Year 109 on, when the letters KP were added to their reverse design, were struck at Jerusalem rather than Tyre. The authors of RPC I, pp. 655-6, persuasively reject this hypothesis, but David Hendin in personal correspondence suggests that these later, quite crude KP pieces, while indeed struck in Tyre, were perhaps commissioned by the Jerusalem authorities specifically for use in the temple. Ex HJB 171, October 2010, lot 189.. EF