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The coins were the size of a modern Israeli half-shekel and were issued by Tyre, in that form, between 126 BC and AD 56. Earlier Tyrian coins with the value of a tetradrachm, bearing various inscriptions and images, had been issued from the second half of the fifth century BC.
The first mention in the Bible of the use of money is in the Book of Genesis [55] in reference to criteria for the circumcision of a bought slave. Later, the Cave of Machpelah is purchased (with silver [ 56 ] [ 57 ] ) by Abraham, some time after 1985 BC, although scholars believe the book was edited in the 6th or 5th centuries BC.
A number of coins are mentioned in the Bible, and they have proved very popular among coin collectors. [1]Specific coins mentioned in the Bible include the widow's mite, the tribute penny and the thirty pieces of silver, though it is not always possible to identify the exact coin that was used.
Herodotus states that the first coinage was issued by Croesus, King of Lydia, spreading to the golden Daric (worth 20 sigloi or shekel), [4] 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.
Double-die style struck coin from Ancient India, c 304-232 BCE featuring an elephant on one face and a lion on the other. Since that time, coins have been the most universal embodiment of money. These first coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow mixture of gold and silver that was further alloyed with silver and copper.
The denarius continued to be the main coin of the Roman Empire until it was replaced by the antoninianus in the early 3rd century AD. The coin was last issued, in bronze, under Aurelian between 270 and 275 AD, and in the first years of the reign of Diocletian. [11] [12] [13]
According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to use gold and silver coins and the first to establish retail shops in permanent locations. [43] It is not known, however, whether Herodotus meant that the Lydians were the first to use coins of pure gold and pure silver or the first precious metal coins in general. [44]
Hasmonean coins are the first known coins in Judea to completely omit depictions of humans or animals, which Yonatan Adler posited was evidence that the Hasmoneans were the first Jewish authorities to enforce rules on creations of "graven images" in line with the Ten Commandments.