An Extremely Rare, Important 2550-Year-Old Silver Coin
Discovered in excavations at the Judean Hills | 1:35
Israel Antiquities Authority Official Channel | 14.9K subscribers | 4,873 views | January 17, 2024
Posted on 01/29/2024 5:32:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv
An extremely rare silver coin that was minted outside the Land of Israel during the Persian Period – within a few centuries of the biblical story of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus in the 6th–5th centuries BCE – has been discovered by an archaeologist during an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation in the Judean Hills...
Minted in a period when the use of coins had just begun, it joins only half a dozen coins of its type that have been found in excavations in the country.
An indication of the gradual process of minting coins instead of weighing silver pieces to make payments for goods purchased is the fact that, although the coin was minted as such, it was found intentionally cut into two...
The rare coin was discovered by Semyon Gendler, the IAA's acting Judean District archaeologist. It was minted with a square stamp embedded into one face; later, more sophisticated techniques produced coins with protruding rather than sunken stamps.
A few weeks ago, the same excavation exposed a building from the First Temple Period, with even earlier evidence for commerce in the form of a shekel weight in a building dating to the time of 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. The sign on the weight was an ancient Egyptian (hieratic, or abridged hieroglyphics used by priests) abbreviation for the word shekel, and the single incised stroke represents one shekel.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
An Extremely Rare, Important 2550-Year-Old Silver Coin
Discovered in excavations at the Judean Hills | 1:35
Israel Antiquities Authority Official Channel | 14.9K subscribers | 4,873 views | January 17, 2024
Fascinating … BTTT
Thanks!
Fascinating. Pre-Islamic Persia was a great friend of Israel, as the story of Cyrus demonstrates.
It really belongs to the Palestinians, you know! Don’t let them know about it or they’ll go to war over it!
Otherwise - super amazing!!! Love stuff like this.
exciting find and excavation.
No surprise it was cut in two. The traditional “Temple Tax” was a half shekel.
I dropped that on the road to Damascus. I want to thank whoever found it!
Even back then you were leaving tips?
A half shekel goes a long way.
2500 Yrs.——
Unbelievable
All 2550 year old coins are rare, aren’t they?
Very. Coins were still kinda new when this one was made, and as the text notes, the need for additional denominations was already understood. Also, the coins and other gold and silver items from obsolete polities often got recycled into coins of newer realms, and some were probably recycled multiple times.
Article says shekel is 11.07 grams
Wikipedia says is 11.42 grams.
So did a shekel get heavier over time?
strange
Wikipedia has been getting lighter.
Maybe back then they used troy grams?
Even back then they had inflation. Coins would be minted with less silver in them as time went on. Kind of like how pennies went from copper to copper coated zinc.
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