EXHIBIT OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



983 



''wedge" (ill the original "tongue," Joshua vii, 21),' disks {Mkkar), or 

 rings (often represented on Egyptian monuments), which undoubtedly 

 had a fixed valuation and weight. Generally the metal was weighed 

 on scales to determine its value. Thus the name of the piece of money 

 most frequently occurring in the Bible, shekel, properly denotes 

 " weight" (from shaqal, "to weigh"), and to this day it is usual in the 

 East to examine and test carefully by weight all coins received. 



After the exile we find mentioned adorlon and darkemon,^ appar- 

 ently as weights for money, which are usually identified in name with 

 the Persian gold daric. Upon the overthrow of the Persian monarchy 

 Greek coins of the denominations of talents and drachms probably 

 began to circulate in Palestine. 



While som^ attribute the first coinage of the shekel to Ezra, the 

 earliest native Jewish coins known are shekels and half shekels of 

 silver, and one-sixth skekel of bronze, struck by Simon Maccab;eus^ 

 about 146 B. C. The succeeding Maccaba-an or Hasmonsean princes 

 down to 37 B. C. struck small bronze coins with Hebrew or Hebrew 

 and Greek inscriptions. The ldum«an or Herodian princes coined 

 bronze money bearing their names in Greek characters. At the same 

 time the Koman procurators of Juda?a (from 6 B. 0.) also struck coins 

 with Greek inscriptions. The last coins struck by the Jews were those 

 during the revolt under Bar-Oochba (132 A. D.). Greek and Eoman 

 money was current in Palestine in addition to the native Hebrew 

 coins, as seen from the ISTew Testament.^ 



Money mentioned in the Bihle. 



I. HEBREW MONEY. 



1 Dr. Scliliemann discovered iu the second layer of Troy (tlie modern Hissarlic) 

 six more or less tongue-shaped silver plaques, which are now preserved in the Royal 

 Museum of Berlin and which are assumed to have served as money ; compare Dr, 

 A. Gotze, Die Trojanischen Silberbanen der Schliemaun-Sammlung, in Globns, LXX I, 

 No. 14. 



^Ezra viii, 27 ; Nehemiah vii, 72. 



^I Maccabees xv, G. 



^Compare William C. Prime, Money of the Bible, in the Sunday School Times, 

 1898, Nos. 15, 17. 



