[ * *37 ] 
The figure of the Koph here is by no means 
the moft antient reprefentation of that element. It 
may, with the utmoft propriety, be ftyled the year of sidon ; 
and that appellation may be more naturally fuppofed to be 
pointed at by the letters Schin and Tbau> prefixed to the dates on 
the fmall Sidonian coins, than the Tingle word at length denoting 
THE YEAR. ° 
4 * On one or two medals in my pofieflion, the element Scbin, 
as the initial letter of the year, or in the year, 
not the whole word denoting the year, appears before the 
numeral characters in the exergue. From whence it Teems clearly 
to follow, that the elements preceding thofe characters ought to 
be taken for initial letters, and confequently that the character I 
denominate Tzade ought to be confidered in that view. 
_ 5 - The year exhibited by the firft medal in my a plate of Phoe- 
nician coins, allowed by M. l’Abbe Barthelemy himfelf to belong 
to Sidon, and adorned with a numeral infcription, denoting 
thirty -six, cannot be the thirty-fixth year of the sra ot' 
Seleucus, becaufe the Sidonians were then fubjeCt to Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, king of Egypt, in whofe territories the fupputa- 
tion according to that epoch did not take place. The aera then 
to which the date on this coin refers muft undoubtedly be 
the proper sera of Sidon, which commenced in the year of 
Rome 643. Nothing therefore can be more natural than to fup- 
pofe, that the two alphabetic character; preceding the numeral 
infcription fhould be the initial letters of .the words 
the year of sidon, as I formerly ventured to fuggeft. From 
whence it feems all'o clearly to follow, that the notation by me 
ccnbdered in a former paper did not prevail at Sidon before the 
207m year of the aera of Seleucus, nearly coincident with the 
643d of Rome. 
0. It what has been here remarked fhould meet with the ap- 
probation of the learned, they will perhaps not fo readily admit 
M. 1 ’Abbe Barthelemy’s pretended coins of Marathus to have ap- 
pertained to that inconfiderable city. Befides, fhould this be al- 
lowed, which, I am perfuaded, it will not, the notation they ex- 
hibit cannot well be luppofed to have been introduced there be- 
fore the later Sidonian aera commenced. For if the numeral 
a See Philofipk. TroxfoM. Vol. L. P. ii. Tab. XXXI. p. 791. 
* T 
too 
