[Avodah] half shekel

[Eli Turkel]

I'm not sure why the article makes the assumption that this particular
coin may have been involved in the mitzvah of machatzis hasheqel. But
if the probability is real, wouldn't it have to be treated as heqdeish?

from
http://begedivri.com/shekel/J-Tyrian.htm

Now the Rabbanim in the year 19/18 BCE had a serious problem. On the
one hand, the giving of the Holy Half-Shekel is a Torah Commandment.
The problem arises with the motif of the Tyrian Shekel. On the obverse
appears the image of Melkhart, known to us as Hercules, the god of the
Phoenicians. On the reverse, appears an eagle on the bow of a ship
with the legend: "Tyre the Holy and City of Refuge", and the date of
issue.
Reverse side of the the Tyrian shekel from the Second Temple period.
The Half shekel coin had the same motif The obverse and reverse of the
Tyrian half shekel from the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem,
used for the mitva of the Holy Half-shekel

Both images, a foreign god (or any likeness of man) and an eagle, are
Torah prohibitions. And yet the Rabbanim decided that the importance
of the giving of the Holy Half-Shekel superceded the violations
incurred in using the Tyrian motif. More than this, these coins were
actually brought into the very Beit Hamikdash itself, a vault room
full of coins dipicting a foreign god, inside the very Temple. And the
sages went as far as issuing the decree, as recorded in the Talmud,
that only the Tyrian Shekel was acceptable for fulfilling the
Commandment of giving the Holy Half-Shekel (because of its silver
purity).

Can you imagine the Rabbanim today producing a religious item and
putting on it the image of a foreign god? Unheard of, right? And yet
that's exactly what we did. Under Roman Law, we had no choice if we
wanted to fulfil the Commandment, and so important was it deemed to do
so, that we entered the image of a foriegn god into the Holy Temple,
an act that only a few generations before sparked the Maccabean
Revolt!

-- 
Eli Turkel