Tag Archives: shekel

Silver shekel coins

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The silver shekel and half shekel are significant coins for both Jews and Christians as they are mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrew word shekel refers to weight (a shekel is 11 grams or .35 troy ounces) or currency, in fact, it has the same root as the Hebrew to weigh, שקל. In practice, the weight fluctuated between 9 and 17 grams depending on the issuing government, location and time period.

Tyrian shekel

Obverse: Melkart/BaalHerakles. Reverse: Eagle on a ship’s rudder, Greek inscription “Tyre the Holy and Inviolable”

Although independent during the Hasmonean period (from 167 BCE), the Jews had no silver coins of their own and from circa 126 BCE – 66 CE relied on coins issued by the Phoenician city of Tyre. These coins, produced in large quantities, became the standard silver coinage in the areas of Phoenicia and Judaea, replacing the coins of Alexander the Great. The obverse features the representation of Melkart (Baal), the chief diety of the Phoenicians. The reverse shows an Egyptian-style eagle with its right claw resting on a ship’s rudder (referring to Tyre’s port), a club (Melkart is associated with Hercules), the Greek inscription “Tyre the Holy and Inviolable” and a date. The number on the coin is a Greek letter that is added to 126 BCE, Tyre’s independence from Syria, to give the date.

All  Judaean taxes were specified in shekels, for example, the annual Temple Tax for males over 20 was a half shekel. The Jewish leadership decided that the Tyrian coins were plentiful and of good silver quality, and so they prescribed that the various Judaean taxes would be accepted only in Tyrian coins even though the images on the coins went against the prohibitions of the Second Commandment: “You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on earth below, or in the waters under the earth.”

In the New Testament there is the story of how Jesus and Peter paid the Temple Tax (of a ½ shekel) using a shekel coin. “Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take, and give unto them for me and thee” (Matthew 17:27). When “Jesus went into the temple of God, and … overthrew the tables of the moneychangers” (Matthew 21:12), he was angry with those who exchanged the local currency for silver Tyrian shekels at exorbitant rates. When Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to the soldiers “they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:15).

The mint in Tyre produced Tyrian Shekels and half shekels, of 95% silver purity, between the years 127 BCE and 19 BCE when Rome closed the mint in Tyre (this according to scholar and numismatic expert Yaakov Meshorer). Rome began to import an inferior silver coinage from the Far East consisting of 80% pure silver – because of this the coins did not have enough silver to make them a half shekel (of weight) so they were not useable to fulfill the commandment.

The Rabbis appealed to the Emperor for permission to produce a ceremonial coin of sufficient purity to fulfil their religious obligations. They received special dispensation on condition that they continue with the motif of the Tyrian Shekel, so as not to arouse objections within the Roman Empire that the Jews were granted “autonomy” to mint their own coins. These coins were inscribed with the letters KP to the right of the eagle, are dated 18 BCE – 66 CE and were minted in Jerusalem.

Coin issued by Jewish rebels in 68 CE Obverse: Chalice “Shekel, Israel. Year 3”. Reverse: 3 pomegranates “Jerusalem the Holy”

With the beginning of the First Revolt against Rome in 66 CE, the Jews began to mint their own silver coins for the first time to demonstrate sovereignty over their own country. These coins had Jewish symbols, chalice that was the measure of the omer and three pomegranate buds (one of 7 species) and Paleo-Hebrew text, struck over the Tyrian shekels from the Temple. With the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE the minting of these coins was discontinued.

Coin issued by Jewish rebels in 135CE Obverse: Star above facade of Temple showing Ark of Covenant “Shimon”. Reverse: Lulav/palm branch & etrog “For freedom of Jerusalem”

During the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 CE) against Rome, the last Jewish coins in antiquity wer issued. On the obverse, the name Shimon in Paleo-Hebrew, the first name of Shimon Ben Kosiba, the leader of the revolt; the star above the image of the Temple refers to the name given to him by Rabbi Akiva, Bar Kochba, son of a star. The silver coins were overstruck on the Roman provincial tetradrachms (mainly from Antioch).

Since 1980, the shekel has been the currency of the modern state of Israel, first the Israeli shekel which due to high inflation in the 1980s was devalued at a ratio of 1000:1 to become in 1986 a New Israeli Shekel (US $1=~3.5₪) in use to this day.

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Coins found in archaeological excavations

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There is real excitement to finding coins in an archaelogical dig, it’s like finding buried treasure. When I was volunteering at the dig at Herodium, clearing a small area of the tomb area we found a few coins from the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Coins help archaeologists date the layer in which they are working. Here is a list of some recent finds:

  • An extremely rare 2200 year old gold coin, minted in Alexandria by King Ptolemy V Epiphanes was uncovered at Tel Kedesh, near Israel’s border with Lebanon. The head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Association, Dr. Ariel, said, “This is the heaviest (27.7 grams compared to most ancient gold coins that weight 4.5 grams) and hence most valuable ancient gold coin ever found in an excavation in Israel. The coin depicts a queen, believed to be Arsinoe II Philadelphus, who was married to her half-brother Ptolemy II. It is possible, however, that it may actually be Ptolemy V’s wife Cleopatra I, daughter of Antiochus III.” First Book of the Maccabees (vii. 6) and Josephus devote considerable attention to Antiochus III since it was through him that Judea’s long and peaceful quietude amid constant warfare all around was interrupted.
  • A half shekel coin was found in the drainage channel of the Second Temple period road leading from the Siloam Pool to the Temple Mount. The coin was used to pay the annual head tax as commanded in the Bible. The shekel that was found in the excavation weighs 13 grams, bears the head of Melqart, the chief deity of the city of Tyre on the obverse (equivalent to the Semitic god Baal) and an eagle on the prow of a ship on the reverse. The coin was minted in the year 22 CE.
  • A silver half shekel coin was discovered in the rubble from the Temple Mount dumped by the Waqf in the Kidron Valley and being sifted at Emeq Tsurim. On one side of the coin, a branch with three pomegranates is visible with the inscription “Holy Jerusalem.” The other side of the coin bears a chalice from the First Temple and says “Half Shekel.” During the days of the Great Revolt, they replaced the Tyrian shekels for the head tax. The coin was minted in the first year of  the Great Revolt against the Romans 66 BCE.
  • A coin minted by the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175-163 BCE) of the Chanukah story was discovered in the rubble dumped in the Kidron valley from the Temple Mount.
  • A gold coin from Napoleon III was discovered in the rubble. In total, some 3500 coins have been found by the Emeq Tsurim Sifting Project. To listen to an interview that I did with IsraelSeen click here.
  • A hoard of 264 gold coins from the Byzantine period (4th-6thC CE) were found in the excavations in the Givati parking lot across from Ir David. All the coins are identical, with the likeness of the emperor Heraclius (610-641CE) wearing military garb and holding a cross in his right hand on the obverse, with the sign of the cross on the reverse. These coins were minted at the beginning of Heraclius’ reign (between the years 610-613 CE), one year before the Persians conquered Byzantine Jerusalem in 614 CE.
  • A rare Crusader minted coin has been identified, after it was recently found in excavations in the Jaffa Flea market. The find, a rare Frankish silver half drachma, is the first specimen to come from a controlled excavation. It was minted only during a very brief period in Frankish Acre, between 1251 and 1257, and was discovered in a domestic structure dating to the 13th century with ceramics dating to the same period. Interestingly, the coin imitates the half dirhem struck in Damascus by the Ayyubids during the first half of the 13th century. In 1250 Bishop Eudes de Chateauroux, learning that the Franks were minting imitation coins with Muslim themes (name of Muhammad and his birth date) ordered an end to the practice, requesting the personal intervention of the Pope Innocent IV.