The earliest shekels were not money, but were a unit of weight, used as other units of weight such as grams and troy ounces for trading before coins. Early coins were money stamped with an official seal to certify their weight. Coins were invented by the early Anatolian traders who stamped their own marks so that they would not have to weigh it again each time it was used. Later the stamping was taken over by official authorities who designed the coins. (Detroit Institute of Arts, 1964) Herodotus states that the first coinage was issued by Croesus, King of Lydia, spreading to the golden Daric (worth 20 sigloi or shekel), issued by the Persian Empire and the Silver Athenian obol and drachma.

The plural can be shekels, sheqels or sheqalim. In some regions of the United States, the term is used informally for “money,” particularly in situations where value is an important consideration.

A coin issued by the rebels in 68 AD. Obverse: “Shekel Israel. Year 3”; Reverse: “Jerusalem the Holy”It most commonly refers to an ancient Hebrew unit of weight.

As with many ancient units, the shekel represented a variety of values depending on date, domain and region. Sources quote weights between 9 and 17 grams and values of 11, 14, and 17 grams are common. It can be a gold or silver coin equal in weight to one of these units, especially the chief silver coin of the Hebrews.

The shekel was commonly used among other western Semitic peoples as well. Moabites, Edomites and Phoenicians all used the shekel, the latter as coinage as well as for a unit of weight. Punic coinage was based on the shekel, a heritage from their Canaanite ancestors. The Aramaic spelling tekel appears with a symbolic meaning in the writing on the wall during the feast of Belshazzar, according to the Book of Daniel.

Silver Tyrian shekels are thought to be the infamous “30 pieces of silver” in the New Testament.

Since 1980, the sheqel has been the currency of the modern state of Israel, first the Israeli sheqel, then (since 1985) the Israeli new sheqel.