In silver shekels were paid the contributions to the Temple (Exod. xxx, 13), the fines for offences (xxi, xxii; Deut. xxii, 19, 29; Lev. v, 15), taxes exacted by kings or governors (2 Kings xv, 20 ; Neh. v, 15), the price of articles (2 Sam. xxiv, 24; 2 Kings vii, 1), etc. In some cases large sums were weighed together (Gen. xxiii, 16; Jer. xxxii, 9), though it is certain that there were pieces of different denominations — both half and quarter shekels (Exod. xxx, 13, 15; 1 Sam. ix, 8, 9). In man}' instances relating to purchases, a word is omit- ted in the Hebrew, and the rendering is always " a thou- sand," or the like, "of silver." The term " pieces" has been supplied in the A. V., but tliere is not much doubt tliat "shekels" is the word understood in all cases. See Silver, Piece of. In Neh. v, 15 mention is made of f >rty shekels of silver paid to the governors, and prob- ably these shekels may have been the silver coin cir- culating in Persia called ffiyXof. Tliis coin has gener- ally been considered a kind of shekel; but as, according to Xenophon (Anab. i, 5, C), it was ecpial to 7| Attic oboli, and an obolus weighed 11.25 grains (11.25 X 7.5 = 81.375), giving a Persian silver coin of 84 grains, it is clear that the crcyXoc can have no coiniection with the (TKcXor (weigliing 220 grains), except in name. (See
Leake, Num. Hell. Europe, p. 21 ; Madden [F.W.], Hist. Jeiu. Coin. p. 20.) But at this time there were coins also current in Persia of the same standard as the shekel (Mionnet, Descrip. de Med. v, 645, No. 30-40 ; viii, 426, No. 29-33). See also Schickard, De Numis Ilebr. p. 15; B.ayer, Sidus Sucer et Profan. (Lips. 1667) ; Iseling, De Siclis Ebneor. (Basil. 1708). For further information on this question, consult the remarks of the abbe Cavedoni (Le Princ, Quest, rigvardanti la Num. Giud. Definitiv. Decise [Modena, 1864]) ; Madden {Num. Chron. v, 191) ; and Plumptre {Bible Educator, iii, 96 sq.). — Kitto, s. v. See Coin.
II. Extant Specimens. — 1. Ralbinical Notices. — Our attention is, in the first place, directed to the early no- tices of these shekels in Rabbinical writers. It might be supposed that in the Mishna, where one of the trea- tises bears the title of" Shekalim," or Shekels, we should find some information on the subject. But this treatise, being devoted to the consideration of the laws relating to the payment of the half-shekel for the Temple, is of course useless for our purpose.
Some references are given to the works of Rashi and Maimonides (contemporary w-riters of the 12th century) for information relative to shekels and the forms of He- brew letters in ancient times; but the most important Rabbinical quotation given by Bayer is that from Ram- ban, i. e. Rabbi Moses Bar-Nachmari, who lived about the commencement of the 13th century. He describes a shekel which he had seen, and of which the Cutheeans read the inscription with ease. The explanation which they gave of the inscription was, on one side Shfkel ha- Shekalim, " The Shekel of Shekels," and on the other, "Jerusalem the Holy." The former was doubtless a misinterpretation of the usual inscri[)tion, "The shekel of Israel;" but the latter corresponds with the inscrip- tion on our shekels (Bayer, I)e Nummis, p. 11). In the 16th century R. Azarias de Rossi states that R. Moses Basula had arranged a Cuthsean, i. e. Samaritan, aljih.i- bet from coins, and R. Moses Alaskar (of whom little is known) is quoted by Bayer as having read on some Samaritan coins " In such a year of the consolation of Israel, in such a year of such a king." The same R. Azarias de Rossi (or de Adumim, as he is called b}- Bar- tolocci, Bibl. Rabb. iv, 158), in his WZ^S llXr, " The Light of the E3-es" (not Fo7is Oculorum, as Bayer trans- lates it, which would require "pS'lS, not "I'^N^), discuss- es the Transfluvial or Samaritan letters, and describes the above-mentioned shekel of Israel; he also deter- mines the weight, which he makes about half an ounce.
We find, therefore, that in early times shekels were known to the Jewish rabbins with Samaritan inscrip- tions corresponding with those now found (except in one point, which is probably an error), and correspond- ing with them in weight. These are important con- siderations in tracing the history of this coinage.
2. Later Notices. — We pass on now to the earliest mention of these shekels by Christian writers. We be- lieve that W. Postell is the first Christian writer wlio saw and described a shekel. He was a Parisian travel- ler who visited Jerusalem early in the 16th century. In a curious work published by him in 1538, entitled Al- phabetum Duoderim Linr/uarum, the following passage occurs. After stating that the Samaritan alphabet was the original form of the Hebrew, he proceeds thus:
"I draw this inference from silver coins of grent an- tiquity which I found nmong the Jews. Tliey set such store "by iheni that I could not get one of them (not other- wise worth a quincunx) for two gold pieces. The Jews Fay they me of tlie titne of Solomon, and they added that, hating the Snniarirans, as they do, worse ilinn dogi*, and never speaking to them, nothing endeais these coins i-o much to them as the consideration that these characters were once in their common usage, nature, as it were, yearning after the things of old. They say that at Jeru- salem, now called Chvs or Chussembarich, in the masonry and in the deei)est part of the ruins, these coius are dug up daily."