The collector’s item gifted by the Alyafi IP Group in 2007 was a Phoenician coin with the Statute of Byblos.
Phoenician merchants were among the first people to barter, and adopt the metal currency. The Phoenician region was divided into several cities and territories ranging from: Tyre, Sidon, Arados, Byblos, Tripolis etc. Each city cast its own silver or bronze coins engraved with figures/figurines of different rulers, gods, local patterns, and local symbols, like ships and cedar trees.
Papyrus received its early Greek name (byblos, byblinos) from the fact that it was exported through Byblos to the Aegean. Therefore, the English word Bible is derived from Byblos as “the (papyrus) book.
Byblos, bears exceptional testimony to the commencements of the Phoenician civilization. They considered it, to be one of their oldest cities, which is directly and tangibly associated with the history of the diffusion of the Phoenician alphabet.
