money
Of uncoined money the first notice we have is in the history of
Abraham (Gen.
13:2; 20:16; 24:35). Next, this word is used in connection with the
purchase of
the cave of Machpelah (23:16), and again in connection with Jacob's
purchase of
a field at Shalem (Gen. 33:18, 19) for "an hundred pieces of
money"=an hundred
Hebrew kesitahs (q.v.), i.e., probably pieces of money, as is
supposed, bearing
the figure of a lamb. The history of Joseph affords evidence of the
constant use
of money, silver of a fixed weight. This appears also in all the
subsequent
history of the Jewish people, in all their internal as well as
foreign
transactions. There were in common use in trade silver pieces of a
definite
weight, shekels, half-shekels, and quarter-shekels. But these were
not properly
coins, which are pieces of metal authoritatively issued, and
bearing a stamp. Of
the use of coined money we have no early notice among the Hebrews.
The first
mentioned is of Persian coinage, the daric (Ezra 2:69; Neh. 7:70)
and the
'adarkon (Ezra 8:27). The daric (q.v.) was a gold piece current in
Palestine in
the time of Cyrus. As long as the Jews, after the Exile, lived
under Persian
rule, they used Persian coins. These gave place to Greek coins when
Palestine
came under the dominion of the Greeks (B.C. 331), the coins
consisting of gold,
silver, and copper pieces. The usual gold pieces were staters
(q.v.), and the
silver coins tetradrachms and drachms. In the year B.C. 140,
Antiochus VII.
gave permission to Simon the Maccabee to coin Jewish money. Shekels
(q.v.) were
then coined bearing the figure of the almond rod and the pot of
manna.
