Phoenician coins. Engraving depicting various coins and medals from the Phoenician civilisation. Phoenicia existed as a collection of city states in the coastal areas of modern day Lebanon and Syria. Its origins date back to about 2300 BCE (before common era), flourished through maritime trade around 1200-800 BCE and declined from about 500-65 BCE. Their coins were made of gold and were freely traded with other civilisations such as the Greeks. Phoenicia gave rise to a written alphabet (upper line of text), a phonetic alphabet thought to be the origin of all western alphabets. Beneath this is a line in Hebrew. This engraving comes from the Gentleman's Magazine published in 1760.