Shekel

The word {{lang|he-Latn|shekel}} is based on the triliteral Proto-Semitic root {{smallcaps|ṯql}}, cognate to the Akkadian {{lang|akk-Latn|šiqlu}} or {{lang|akk-Latn|siqlu}}, a unit of weight equivalent to the Sumerian {{lang|sux-Latn|gin2}}.{{cite book|title=Mathematics and measurement|first=Oswald Ashton Wentworth|last=Dilke|year=1987|publisher=University of California Press|location=|page=46|isbn=9780520060722|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_AKJZvXOS7n4C}} Use of the word was first attested in {{circa|2150 BC}} under the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad, and later in {{circa|1700 BC}} in the Code of Hammurabi. The Hebrew reflex of the root {{smallcaps|šql}} is found in the Hebrew words for "to weigh" ({{lang|he-Latn|shaqal}}), "weight" ({{lang|he-Latn|mishqal}}) and "consideration" ({{lang|he-Latn|shiqqul}}). It is cognate to the Aramaic root {{smallcaps|tql}} and the Arabic root {{smallcaps|ṯql}} (ث ق ل, in words such as {{lang|ar-Latn|thiqāl}} "weight", {{lang|ar-Latn|thāqil}} "heavy" or {{lang|ar-Latn|mithqal}}, a unit of weight). The famous writing on the wall in the Book of Daniel includes a cryptic use of the word in Aramaic: "{{lang|oar-Latn|Mene, mene, teqel, u-farsin}}".

Shekel came into the English language via the Hebrew Bible, where it is first used in Genesis 23.

The term "shekel" has been used for a unit of weight, around 9.6 or 9.8 grams (0.31 or 0.32 ozt), used in Bronze Age Europe for balance weights and fragments of bronze that may have served as money.{{cite journal|first1=Nicola|last1=Ialongo|first2=Giancarlo|last2=Lago|title=A small change revolution. Weight systems and the emergence of the first Pan-European money|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|year=2021|volume=129|issue=|page=105379|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2021.105379|bibcode=2021JArSc.129j5379I|doi-access=free|hdl=11573/1547061|hdl-access=free}}

The earliest shekels were a unit of weight, used as other units such as grams and troy ounces for trading before the advent of coins. The shekel was common among western Semitic speakers. Moabites, Edomites, and Phoenicians used the shekel, although proper coinage developed very late. Carthaginian coinage was based on the shekel and may have preceded its home town of Tyre in issuing proper coins.

Coins were used and may have been invented by the early Anatolian traders who stamped their marks to avoid weighing each time used. Herodotus states that the first coinage was issued by Croesus, King of Lydia, spreading to the golden Daric (worth 20 {{lang|grc-Latn|sigloi}} or shekel),{{cite encyclopedia|title=Encyclopædia Britannica|contribution=Siglos|contribution-url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/543654/siglos}}. issued by the Achaemenid Empire and the silver Athenian obol and drachma. Early coins were money stamped with an official seal to certify their weight. Silver ingots, some of them with markings, were issued. Later authorities decided who designed coins.{{Sfn|DIA|1964}}

As with many ancient units, the shekel had a variety of values depending on the era, government and region; weights between 7 and 17 grams and values of 11,{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Tenney|editor-first=Merril|encyclopedia=The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible|volume=5|title=Weights and Measures|location=Grand Rapids, MI|publisher=Zondervan|year=1976}} 14, and 17 grams are common. A two-shekel weight recently recovered near the temple area in Jerusalem and dated to the period of the First Temple weighs 23 grams,{{cite web|first=Jonathan|last=Laden|title=Iron Age Weight Found near Temple Mount|date=15 October 2020|location=15 October 2020|url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/temple-at-jerusalem/iron-age-weight-found-near-temple-mount/}} giving a weight of 11.5 grams per shekel in Israel during the monarchy. When used to pay labourers, recorded wages in the ancient world range widely. The Code of Hammurabi (circa 1800 BC) sets the value of unskilled labour at approximately ten shekels per year of work, confirmed in Israelite law by comparing {{bibleverse|Deut|15:18|KJV}} with {{bibleverse|Exod|21:32|KJV}}.{{cite book|first1=G. Johannes|last1=Botterweck|first2=Helmer|last2=Ringgren|first3=Heinz-Josef|last3=Fabry|title=Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament|page=132|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|location=|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8028-2345-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMidce6H4WYC&pg=PA132}} Later, records within the Achaemenid Empire (539–333 BC) give ranges from a minimum of two shekels per month for unskilled labour, to as high as seven to ten shekels per month in some records. A subsistence wage for an urban household during the Persian period would have required at least 22 shekels of income per year.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UrwJ76OkyY0C&pg=PA62|title=Economics in Persian-Period Biblical Texts: Their Interactions with Economic Developments in the Persian Period and Earlier Biblical Traditions|year=2016|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|location=|isbn=978-3-16-154813-0|page=62|first=Peter|last=Altmann}}

{{bibleverse|Exodus|30:24}} notes that the measures of the ingredients for the holy anointing oil were to be calculated using the Shekel of the Sanctuary (see also {{bibleverse|Exodus|38:24–26}}, and similarly at {{bibleverse|Numbers|3:47}} for payment for the redemption of 273 first-born malesSee Bemidbar (Parsha)#Sixth reading — Numbers 3:40–51 and at {{bibleverse|Numbers|7:12–88}} for the offerings of the leaders of the tribes of Israel), suggesting that there were other common measures of a shekel in use, or at least that the Temple authorities defined a standard for the shekel to be used for Temple purposes.

According to Levitical law, whenever a census of the Israelites was to be conducted, every person that was counted was required to pay the half-shekel for his atonement ({{bibleverse|Exodus|30:11–16}}).Compare Josephus, Antiquities (vii. 13, § 1)[http://sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-7.htm Antiquities of the Jews – Book VII]

The Aramaic {{lang|oar-Latn|tekel}}, similar to the Hebrew {{lang|he-Latn|shekel}}, used during the feast of Belshazzar according to the Book of Daniel and defined as weighed, shares a common root with the word shekel and may even additionally attest to its original usage as a weight.

===Second Temple period half-Shekel Temple tax===

File:Shekel - Coins of Second Temple period.jpg script, at the Rockefeller Archeological Museum]]

During the Second Temple period, it was customary among Jews to annually offer the half-Shekel into the Temple treasury, for the upkeep and maintenance of the Temple precincts, as also used in purchasing public animal offerings. This practice not only applied to Jews living in the Land of Israel, but also to Jews living outside the Land of Israel.Josephus, Antiquities (xviii. 9, § 1) Archaeological excavations conducted at Horvat 'Ethri in Israel from 1999 to 2001 by Boaz Zissu and Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have yielded important finds, the most-prized of which being a half-Shekel coin minted in the 2nd century CE, upon which are embossed the words "Half-Shekel" in paleo-Hebrew ({{Langx|he|חצי השקל}}). The same coin possesses a silver content of 6.87 grams.Boaz Zissu & Amir Ganor, Horvat Ethri — A Jewish Village from the Second Temple Period and the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the Judean Foothills, Journal of Jewish Studies 60 (1), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, London 2009, pp. 96; 118. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the annual monetary tribute of the half-Shekel to the Temple at Jerusalem was equivalent to two Athenian drachmæ, each Athenian or Attic drachma weighing a little over 4.3 grams.Josephus, Wars of the Jews (vii. 6, § 6).

The First Jewish Revolt coinage was issued from AD 66 to 70 amid the First Jewish–Roman War as a means of emphasizing the independence of Judea from Roman rule and replacing the Tyrian shekel with its image of a foreign god which had previously been minted to pay the temple tax.{{cite web|url=http://www.begedivri.com/shekel/J-Tyrian.htm|title=Jerusalem's Tyrian Shekels: a lesson in priorities}}

The Bar Kochba shekel was issued from AD 132 to 135 amid the Bar Kokhba revolt for similar reasons.

{{main|Carthaginian coinage}}

The Punic or Carthaginian shekel was typically around 7.2 grams in silver and 7.5 grams in gold (suggesting an exchange rate of 12:1).{{cite book|last=Crawford|first=Michael Hewson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=84_G_8q6WQcC|title=Coinage and Money under the Roman Republic: Italy and the Mediterranean Economy|series=The Library of Numismatics|editor=Philip Grierson|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|year=1985|isbn=0-520-05506-3}} It was apparently first developed in Sicily during the mid-4th century BC.{{citation|last=Bronson|first=Bennet|title=Bulletin|volume=47|date=November 1976|issue=10|publisher=Field Museum of Natural History|location=Chicago|url=https://archive.org/stream/fieldmuseumofnat47chica#page/n193/mode/2up|contribution=Cash, Cannon, and Cowrie Shells: The Nonmodern Moneys of the World|pages=3–15}}. It was associated with the payment of Carthage's mercenary armies and was repeatedly devalued over the course of each of the Punic Wars. The amount and quality of this currency however increased as a result of the Carthaginian Empire's expansion into Spain under the Barcid dynasty before the Second Punic War and recovery under Hannibal before the Third Punic War. Throughout, it was more common for Carthage's holdings in North Africa to employ bronze or no coinage except when paying mercenary armies and for most of the coins to circulate in Iberia, Sardinia, and Sicily.

{{main|Tyrian shekel}}

The Tyrian shekel began to be issued {{circa|lk=no|300 BC}}. Owing to the relative purity of its silver, it became the preferred medium of payment for the Temple tax in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, the “30 pieces of silver” paid by the chief priests to Judas Iscariot in exchange for his betrayal of Jesus may be a reference to the Tyrian shekel.{{cite book|author-link=Donald Wiseman|first=Donald J.|last=Wiseman|title=Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Tyndale Press|year=1958|pages=87–89}}.

{{main|Old Israeli shekel|Israeli new shekel}}

The shekel ({{lang|he-Latn|sheqel}} in direct transcription) replaced the Israeli pound ({{langx|he|לִירָה}}, lira) in 1980. Its currency symbol was {{angle brackets|14px}}, although it was more commonly notated as ש or IS. It was subdivided into 100 new agorot (אגורות חדשות). It was replaced in 1985 by the new shekel, due to hyperinflation. Its currency symbol is {{nowrap|{{angle brackets| ₪ }},}} although it is often notated as ש״ח or NIS. It is subdivided into 100 agorot. Both Israeli shekels are solely units of fiat currency, and not related to the weight of any precious metal. With the 2014 series of notes, the Bank of Israel abandoned the transcriptions {{lang|he-Latn|Sheqel}} and {{lang|he-Latn|Sheqalim}} in favor of the standard English forms Shekel and Shekels.

{{Portal|Money|Numismatics}}

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{{Reflist}}

• {{Citation|url=http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/catal/cataloge.htm|publisher=Banking of Israel|title=Banknotes and coins catalog|access-date=2009-11-11|archive-date=2009-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217164825/http://bankisrael.gov.il/catal/cataloge.htm|url-status=dead}}
• {{Citation|contribution-url=http://colnect.com/en/coins/list/country/1873/item_name/sheqel|contribution=Sheqel|title=Coins|publisher=Colnect|type=catalog with pictures}}
• {{Citation|publisher=Detroit Institute of Arts|year=1964|title=Coins of the Ancient World|ref={{SfnRef|DIA|1964}}}}
• Girardin, Michaël (2024). "Le demi-sicle, de Moïse au fiscus Iudaicus. Histoire d’une téléologie." Journal of Ancient Civilizations 39,1, pp. 73–98.

{{EB1911 poster|Shekel}}

{{Wiktionary}}

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{{Shilling}}

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Shekel

Category:Ancient currencies

Category:Currencies of Israel

Category:Units of mass

Category:Phoenician currency

Category:Coins of Judea