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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. [2]
In Hebrew, a silver Dinar was called a "Zuz" to avoid confusion with the gold Dinar. "Shekel" (pl. shkalim) - a Jewish silver coin (Shekel, (Hebrew שקל) - 14 g; Moses instituted it as the standard coinage. From 8.39 to 15.86 grams (0.27-0.51 troy ounces) of pure silver (Chazon Ish).
The shekel sign, like the dollar sign $ , is usually placed to the left of the number (so ₪12,000 , rather than 12,000₪ ), but since Hebrew is written from right to left, the symbol is actually written after the number.
The old Israeli shekel, , in circulation between 1980 and 1985, had a different symbol, which was officially announced on 18 March 1980. [3] Before the introduction of the old shekel in 1980, there was no special symbol for the Israeli currency. It was a stylized Shin shaped like a cradle (i.e. rounded and opening upward).
In later centuries, the half-shekel was adopted as the amount of the Temple tax, although in Nehemiah 10:32–34 the tax is given as a third of a shekel. [2] This is what each one who is registered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.
Obverse: "Half Shekel Year 2". Reverse: "Jerusalem the Holy". Bronze prutah eighth of a shekel of year 4 (69–70 CE) issued during the First Jewish Revolt. First Jewish Revolt coinage was issued by the Jews after the Zealots captured Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple from the Romans in 66 CE at the beginning of the First Jewish Revolt.
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. [2]
The new shekel has been in use since 1 January 1986, when it replaced the hyperinflated old shekel at a ratio of 1000:1. The currency sign for the new shekel ₪ is a combination of the first Hebrew letters of the words shekel (ש ) and ẖadash (ח ) (new). When the shekel sign is unavailable the abbreviation NIS (ש״ח and ش.ج) is used.