My small collection likewise affords two[180] other Phœnician medals
of Sidon,[181] and Archbishop Wake’s noble cabinet one, of the same
type, with different Phœnician dates in the exergue. To these may be
added five, with the publication of which the learned world has been
obliged by Sig. Arigoni[182]. The anterior faces of these coins are
adorned with a veiled head, representing the genius of the city wherein
they were struck; and the reverses with a human figure leaning upon
a pillar, and holding a branch of palm in its right hand. Several
Phœnician letters also there appear, which may perhaps at first sight
seem to render it somewhat doubtful, whether the medals belong to
Sidon or not. But every suspicion arising from hence must immediately
vanish, when we cast our eyes upon the two initial elements, and the
numeral characters, in the exergue; which clearly enough indicate the
pieces to have been struck at Sidon, in the 83d, 87th, 95th, 105th,
106th, 108th, 114th, and 116th years of the æra peculiar to that city.
A Phœnician coin of Sidon likewise occurs in one[183] of Sig. Arigoni’s
plates, and another[184] in my collection, with the turrited head and
branch of palm visible on three of the[185] medals above described,
which indisputably appertain to that city, together with the very
Phœnician letters and symbol imprest on the Sidonian coins now before
me. This, exclusive of other considerations, that might be offered,
must set the point I am here insisting upon beyond dispute.