[Avodah] Sheqel Kesef

[Zev Sero]

On 9/1/23 10:21, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> There is news on that front. This came in on my JNS feed this morning
> https://www.jns.org/israeli-researchers-uncover-earliest-silver-used-as-currency-in-levant/
> Full text attached below.
> 
> Apparently when these pieces of silver were made, over 3,600 years ago --
> or in the Seder Olam's timeline, around contemary with Avraham avinu -
> coins weren't a thing yet, but precut silver sheqalim were.

My understanding of hacksilver is that they were not pre-cut to standard 
weights, but rather cut on demand.  If Avraham owed Efron 400 silver 
shekel, and the only silver he had handy was a 500-shekel candlestick, 
he'd just cut a piece off that looked like about a fifth of its weight, 
and then weigh it and adjust as needed, and give Efron the remainder. 
Efron would end up with a mutilated piece that could not be used as a 
candlestick, but was fine as currency, and he'd add it to his hoard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver


> Which fits my guess that Avraham paying with sheqalim that were "over
> lasocher" refers to pieces of unstamped silver needing to be tested for
> purity and weighed -- unless they were obviously beyond the minima and
> acceptable to anyone.

Even if there was a standard of "over lasocher" silver that didn't need 
to be tested for purity, evidently it still needed to be weighed, since 
the Torah says "vayishkol", not "vayimneh" or "vayiten".

-- 
Zev Sero            “Were we directed from Washington when to sow
zev at sero.name       and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
		    –Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.