[Avodah] Half-Shekel found from the time of Bayis Sheni

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 09:57:02PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: AIUI, many shkalim have been found over the past 200 years or so, and
: they tend to be in the 13-14 gram range.
...
: The shekel of Moshe's time was 320.  The Shekel Tzori of Chazal was 384.
...
: The Rambam's grains are 1/64 of a dirham, and his dirham was definitely
: no bigger than the Ottoman dirham of 3.2 g (and there is some reason to
: believe it was a bit smaller), which makes a grain no more than 50 mg.

That comes to 19.2gm for a Sheqel Tzori!

To get 14gm, you would need a grain that is less than 36mg. That's quite
a "bit smaller".

I would still say that of the three rishonim, the Rif is closest to the
coints cound.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha