Caracalla Billon AE27, Tyre, Phoenicia, Eagle on Club, Murex, AD 209–211

Caracalla, AE27, debased silver, reign 198–217, struck at Tyre, Phoenicia, 209–211; 13.10 g; 27 mm. Obverse: Laureate bust right; legend ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΤΩΝΙΝΟC CΕ. Reverse: Eagle standing facing on club, head and tail left, wings spread, holding wreath in beak; murex shell between the eagle’s legs; legend ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞ ΥΠΑΤΟΥ ΤΟ Γ. Struck on a broad provincial billon flan, die axis 6 h. Reference: RPC V.3, — (unassigned; ID 81882). Issued during Caracalla’s tribunician power and third consulship, this Tyrian provincial piece combines imperial titulature with local iconography: the eagle on Heraklean club and the murex shell, emblem of Tyre’s purple-dye industry. The series reflects the city’s role as a major Phoenician mint supplying fiduciary silver-alloy coinage for regional circulation during the emperor’s eastern operations in the years immediately preceding his Constitutio Antoniniana.