3. None of the medals of the Syrian kings, with Phœnician letters upon them[204], hitherto published, bear any Phœnician dates. This, after what has been said, renders it extremely probable, that the pieces of Sidon I am considering were posterior to those coins; and even that their Phœnician dates referred to an æra different from that of Seleucus, followed by the Greek dates on the medals of the Syrian kings. Which if we admit, this æra could have been no other than the new one of the Sidonians, that commenced in the seventh century of Rome. 4. That the dates visible on these coins were supputed according to the latter epoch of Sidon, will be manifest from an examination of the Greek and Phœnician brass medals of that city explained, in[205] the beginning of this paper; whose type and workmanship are extremely similar, if not almost intirely the same. For this circumstance is to me an evident proof, that they could not have been struck at very distant times. Now if we take the Greek coin to have followed the æra of Seleucus, as was undoubtedly the case, and the others that peculiar to Sidon; the first of the Phœnician dates[206] will not be prior to the Greek one above fifty-three years, nor the last of them precede it above forty-three years. Whereas if we suppose the numeral inscriptions in the exergues of the Phœnician Sidonian coins to have been supputed according to the Seleucian epoch, the difference between the aforesaid dates will be five times as much; which with the similarity of workmanship and type, already observed, will be altogether incompatible. 5. As the Jews[207], about the time that the first of our medals was struck, denominated the æra of Seleucus, THE ÆRA OF THE KINGDOM OF THE GREEKS; we cannot well doubt but it went amongst the Sidonians, who were neighbours to the Jews, under the same denomination. From whence it will follow, that the epoch styled by them emphatically, THE ÆRA OF SIDON, must have been different from the æra of Seleucus; and consequently that which, after the 643d year of Rome, was peculiar to them. [Illustration: _Philos. Trans. Vol. L._ TAB. XXXII. _p. 804_ PHŒNICIAN Numerals antiently used at SIDON, from _One_ to a _Thousand_. _J. Mynde sc._] The powers of the Phœnician numeral characters antiently used at Sidon, which I flatter myself are now discovered, having been for many ages unknown; the Society will perhaps not be displeased to see accurate draughts of the principal Phœnician medals, from whence they are deduced. I have therefore taken the liberty to transmit them[208] such draughts, which may be intirely depended upon. I have also constructed a table[209] of the numeral characters themselves, from UNITY TO A THOUSAND; which will demonstrate, in the clearest manner possible, the great affinity between them and those of the Palmyrenes.