Three coins of Sidon, different from the former, occur in[171] Sig.
Haym, and seven[172] more in my little cabinet, whose type is
altogether the same, with Phœnician dates, preceded by the two
aforesaid initial letters, upon them. To which we may add five,
preserved in the noble[173] cabinet bequeathed to Christ-Church,
Oxon. by Archbishop Wake, and another in the valuable collection of
the Rev. Dr. Barton[174], Canon of the said collegiate church, and a
worthy member of this Society. On one side these medals all exhibit
the head of Jupiter, and on the reverse the prow of a ship, the common
symbol of Sidon. Most of them had various Phœnician letters at first
imprest on the upper part of the reverse, and one of them (which is
pretty remarkable) nearly the same characters there that appear in
the exergue. The first of the coins mentioned here was struck in the
year of Sidon 5. This has been perfectly well preserved, and is more
curious than any of the rest; which were emitted from the mint at Sidon
in various years of the proper æra of that city, _viz._ the 107th,
108th, 110th, 111th, 112th, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 119th. We
meet on none of these medals with the figure denoting TWENTY, used
by the Sidonians, during the period I am now upon. It not a little
resembles that which prevailed at Tadmor[175] in the reign of the
emperor Claudius, about forty-nine years after the birth of CHRIST. The
most antient of the Phœnician coins I am now considering preceded the
commencement of the Christian æra 104 years, and is consequently 153
years older than the earliest Palmyrene inscription that has hitherto
come to our hands[176].