Summary: Recent discovery of a rare silver coin from the Persian period provides earliest evidence of coin use in Israel.
Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. – Exodus 30:13 (ESV)
Early Evidence for Commerce
Evidence for the earliest use of coins in Israel was recently uncovered in the Judean Hills, during an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation due to infrastructure work by the Netivei Israel Roadworks Company.
Archaeologists discovered an extremely rare silver coin dating to the Persian period (6th–5th centuries BC), the time of the Cyrus’ Edict and the return of Jewish exiles to Israel. Researchers also found a shekel weight in a First Temple period building, even earlier evidence of commerce. This special find is important because it sheds light on the transition from using cut pieces of metal for currency to the beginnings of the world’s first minted coins.
The discovery of this coin is extremely rare, “joining only half a dozen coins of its type that have been found in archaeological excavations in the country,” explained Dr. Robert Kool, Head of the IAA Numismatic Department. “The coin was minted in a period when the use of coins had just begun.”
Cutting Coins
Semyon Gendler, the Acting Judean District Archaeologist of the IAA, discovered the rare coin and found that it was minted with a square stamp embedded into one side. Later, as more sophisticated techniques were developed, coins began to be made with raised rather than sunken stamps.
Researchers believe the coin was intentionally broken or cut in two pieces. This indicates a later use in the 4th century BC as a weighted piece of silver rather than a coin. Within numismatics, the science of interpreting ancient coins, halved coins are very rare. This partial coin is an example of the varied uses of coins for purposes of trade and payment. A coin would be cut in two pieces to half its value.
The halving of this coin, in its specific context and at a time when cut and weighed precious metals was just beginning to be replaced by coins minted and made of silver or gold, shows that the practice of cutting and using metal pieces for their weight continued even after coins came into general use.
“The rare find contributes information concerning the way trade was carried out, and the process whereby global commerce moved from payment by weighing silver pieces, to the use of coins,” said Kool.
“The coin belongs to a group of very early coins that were minted outside Israel, in the regions of ancient Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey,” he continued. In the 6th–5th centuries BC, such coins began to appear at sites in the Land of Israel.
Shekel Weight
“The [excavation] site was situated in the rural area of the Kingdom of Judah, whose capital was in Jerusalem,” according to Michal Mermelstein and Danny Benayoun, IAA excavation directors. “It was first settled in the First Temple period, in the 7th century BC (2,700 years ago), during the reigns of the kings of Judah: Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon and Josiah, a peak settlement period in the kingdom of Judah.”
“A characteristic ‘four-room house’ was uncovered from this period, and the shekel weight, found on the floor of one of the rooms in the house, provides early evidence for trade. The dome-shaped stone weight would have been used for weighing metals, spices, and other expensive commodities,” they continued.
“The sign on the weight was an ancient Egyptian (hieratic) abbreviation for the word shekel, and the single incised stroke represents one shekel. The weight weighs 11.07 g.
This was in effect a standard weight in the region of the kingdom of Judah, showing that commodities were carefully weighed in the markets,” said the archaeologists.
The Bible points out the use and importance of these kinds of weights.
You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. – Leviticus 19:36
“You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. – Deuteronomy 25:12-14
A just balance and scales are the Lord’s – Proverbs 16:11
Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good. – Proverbs 20:23
Temple Tax Revived
We can read in Exodus that in support of the tabernacle/Temple every Jewish man, no matter his economic situation, was required to give a mandatory tax of one half-shekel of silver. This was equivalent to approximately eight grams, worth about $4 today. Once the half-shekel payments were deposited in the Temple courtyard, they were considered hekdesh or sanctified and not allowed to be used for any other purpose.
The Lord said to Moses, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.” – Exodus 30:11-16
After the First Temple was destroyed, the nation of Israel continued to give the Temple tax. Even Jews who lived outside of Israel kept donating the half-shekel, despite the Roman Senate forbidding the export of gold and silver. The practice was eventually stopped in AD 135, when it was outlawed by Roman Emperor Hadrian.
After a 2,000-year moratorium, it is now possible again for Jewish people to perform the commandment or mitzvah of paying the half-shekel for the future of a third Temple. In 1997, a tailor who specialized in Biblically styled clothing, Reuven Prager, revived the temple tax practice by minting silver coins that adhered to the Biblical requirements. Those who wish to can buy the silver coins from Prager, and then deposit them with Otzar Hamikdash (Treasury of the Temple), an organization set up to collect these coins.
The nascent (newly renewed) Sanhedrin has also instituted a way to revive the mitzvah to rebuild the Temple by issuing a medallion that can be used in place of the actual silver coin. The advantage of the Sanhedrin medallion is that it represents the half-shekel but is not considered sanctified. Therefore, it does not have to be physically deposited, allowing Jews who live outside of Israel to participate.
Simultaneous Construction and Excavation
The fruitful excavation was started because of the need for highway expansion. “We began the substantial project on Highway 375, which aims toward expanding into a two-lane, two-way highway, 8 km long, including arranging junctions and expanding the existing underpasses on the route,” said Moriya Reef, an engineer and Southern Region Projects Department Manager for Netivei Israel.
“We fully recognized that this area required collaboration with the Antiquities Authority for the possibility of discovering archeological findings at any point throughout the job site. We enabled them to conduct their work parallel to the progress on the highway, and there is no doubt that its findings are amazing. The thought that discovering such important and meaningful findings thanks to initiating an infrastructure project is undoubtedly quite exciting,” said Reef.
Conclusion
“[It is] always surprising how important findings are discovered in unexpected places,” said Eli Escusido, Director of the IAA. “The tiny coins are a crucial source of information in archaeology. They provide visual details, inscriptions, and dates.”
“Through a tiny object like a coin, it becomes possible to trace human thought processes and observe that our economic habits have remained largely unchanged for thousands of years – only the technology has changed. In this context, it is interesting to consider future archaeological research in a world that has adopted electronic commerce.”
Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: The rare coin, providing evidence for the development of commerce. (credit: Emil Aladjem, IAA)
