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Coin Name
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Relation to other
coin
|
equiv. grams
|
equiv. in silver(
Troy OZ)
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Worth then
|
Worth today
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Prutah [ae]
|
1/8 issur
|
0.01844
|
0.00059
|
$0.20
|
$0.011
|
|
|
Issur (assarius) [ae]
|
8 prutahs
|
0.1475
|
0.0047
|
$1.60
|
$0.085
|
|
|
pundyon (dupondius) [ae]
|
2 issurs
|
0.2950
|
0.0095
|
$3.20
|
$0.17
|
|
|
ma'ah (obol) [ar]
|
2 pundyons
|
0.59
|
0.0190
|
$6.40
|
$0.34
|
|
|
dinar, zuz (denarius,
drachm) [ar]
|
6 ma'ahs
|
3.54
|
0.114
|
$38.40
|
$2.05
|
|
|
"shekel" (didrachm, Stater) [ar]
|
2 drachms,denarii
|
7.08
|
0.228
|
$76.80
|
$4.10
|
|
|
sela, istira (tetradrachm)
[ar]
|
2 didrachms, 4 drachms
|
14.16
|
0.455
|
$153.60
|
$8.19
|
(aureus in gold)
|
|
dinar zahav, dinar (aureus) [au]
|
25 denarii
|
88.50
|
2.845
|
$960.00
|
$51.22
|
$277.49
|
|
Maneh (minah)
|
100 drachms, denarii
|
354.00
|
11.381
|
$3,840.00
|
$204.86
|
|
|
Kikar (talent)
|
60 Maneh
|
|
682.8819
|
$230,400.00
|
$12,291.87
|
|
|
[ae] = Bronze, [ar] =
Silver, [au] = Gold
|
2/25
|
2/25
|
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|
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|
1 Troy Ounce = 31.1 grams. 1 regular ounce =28.3 grams.
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The "worth then" column is based on the the fact that the dinar was the daily wage, a loaf of
bread cost a pundyon
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in the cities while costing only an issur
italki in the country, and a cheap fruit costed a prutah.
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|
as of May 19,2009
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We can therefore guesstimate that silver is worth about $330/oz back then. Today silver is
|
$18.00
|
per ounce
|
wholesale prices
|
|
These coins and prices are accurate for the time period
right before the Destruction of the Second Temple (66 CE).
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The names in parentheses are the secular names for the
coins.
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gold(oz)
|
$1,128.00
|
|
Notes:
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|
|
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|
silver(oz)
|
$18.00
|
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1. The prutah, issur, and pundyon were
bronze or copper [ae], and were Roman. The ma'ah was silver [ar] , and was a Greek coin.
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2. While the official issur
and pundyon were bronze, there were fractions of
silver ma'os in circulation earlier that were the
equivalents.
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|
Shekel Rate
|
|
The Rosh and Rashi argue if
the issur and pundyon
were bronze or silver. We see they're both right.
|
|
|
4.00
|
|
3. The Roman dinar and Greek drachm
were originally equivalent. Later the Roman Empire started shrinking its denarii.
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|
|
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They compounded this by mixing in base metals with its
silver, ruining its purity and causing runaway inflation.
|
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4. The "shekel" is a coloquial
term for the didrachm used to pay the half-shekel
Temple tax. Its value is only a half-shekel.
|
|
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|
The sela is, in fact, the
actual shekel. The Aramaic-speaking
Jews of the era called it a sela.
|
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5. The dinar zahav was a gold
coin [au] . At this point in time, the silver:gold ratio was 13:1.
Gold is much denser than silver,
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|
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thus the 25:1 price ratio, even though both the dinar
and the dinar zahav were the same physical size.
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6. The dinar was called a "zuz"
in Aramaic. The dinar zahav was called a
"dinar" in Aramaic.
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7. The maneh and kikar were the aquivalent of
a "grand" in American idiom- they represented a number but were
not real currency.
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8. One must keep in mind that ancient societies were
subsistence living, with meat being a rare luxury. Furthermore, all
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clothing items were hand-tailored and very expensive.
Therefore, direct comparisons of prices and income are impossible.
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9. The Shulchan Aruch rules that one should go by the slightly larger
"mithqal" standard (17.2 gm/tetradrachm instead of the Tyrian
14.16)
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|
for all money halachos. To enlarge these weights into halachic size,
multiply each equivalent by 1.2006. The Chazon Ish rules that
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a shekel tzuri is 19.2 grams. This works out to .617
Troy Oz per Sela.
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10. Babylonian amoraim used
the Sassanian coinage, a modified Greek system. There
were no isser italkis
or pundyons.
|
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|
bronze coins were peshittim ("pashiz"). The
zuz was also called the "drahm".
The golden dinar did exist, but was not Roman.
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This coin is referred to as the dinar (the zuz being the drachm). 4 zuzim = 1 istira ("ster).
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11. This chart is for information purposes only and is
not to be relied upon for halacha.
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