29'2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1758. 



discovery, which may perhaps hereafter be of considerable service to chronology; 

 I could not longer defer, though now deeply engaged in other matters, commu- 

 nicating it to the Roval Society. Nor will the memoir containing this, I flatter 

 myself, be deemed altogether unworthy the attention of that learned and illus- 

 trious bodv. For, unless he be greatly deceived, it will bid fair, Mr. S. thinks, 

 that the Phoenician dates of several ancient Sidonian coins evince the notation of 

 the Phoenicians, at least those of Sidon, when they first appeared, were ex- 

 tremely similar to, if not nearly the same with, that of the Palmyrenes. To 

 prove this, he describes below several such coins in his possession. 



Fig. 1, pi. 10, is a small brass coin of Sidon ; exhibits on the reverse 3 Phoe- 

 nician letters, that form the word Sidon, over the prow of a ship, the usual 

 symbol of the city where it was struck. The first 2 characters in the exergue, 

 though somewhat imperfect, appear manifestly enough to be schin and tzade ; as 

 the former occurs on the Palmyrene marbles, and the latter on several very valu- 

 able Phoenician coins. The others so nearly resemble the numeral characters of 

 the Palmyrenes, that they may undoubtedly be considered as pointing out to us 

 a date. Which if we admit, the schin and tzade will seem to be the initial let- 

 ters of the words TTV ilitt^? the year op sidon, or in the year op sidon. 

 That the first of the numeral characters here stands for 20, we may infer from 

 the correspondent one of the Palmyrenes, to the form of which it is by no means 

 unlike. This will likewise be confirmed by the dates preserved on other Phoe- 

 nician coins, which will be immediately produced. The next, denoting a less 

 number, and not representing 5, which we find always expressed by minute 

 right lines on the Sidonian medals, must indubitably occupy the place of 10. 

 The 6 following strokes, after what has been just observed, will be acknow- 

 ledged to add 6 to the foregoing numbers; so that the inscription in the exergue 

 will no longer remain a mystery, the whole only importing, in the year op 

 SIDON xxxvi. 



Fig. 2 represents one of three other coins of Sidon, of almost entirely the same 

 type ; only one of them exhibits a date in Greek numerals, and 2 bear Phoeni- 

 cian dates. The Greek numerals are EOT, 375 ; and the Phoenician correspond 

 with the numbers 120, 127, to both of which are prefixed the above-mentioned 

 initial letters. We meet with draughts of 2 similar medals in Arigoni, adorned 

 with characters, expressing the number 128, 130. All these coins present to 

 our view a turrated head and a branch of palm, pointing out to us the country 

 to which they belong ; and on the reverse the usual symbol of Sidon. The year 

 denoted by the Greek date EOT, is the 375th of the aera of Seleucus; and those 

 denoted by the Phoenician numerals answer to the 120th, 127th, 128th, and 

 130th, of the proper aera of Sidon, as will be hereafter more fully evinced. Hence 

 we may certainly collect, that these pieces were struck at Sidon in the years of 

 Christ 11, 18, 19, 21, and 64. 



