[Avodah] Sheqel Kesef

[Zev Sero]

On 10/1/23 16:23, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 09, 2023 at 06:17:19PM -0500, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
>> My understanding of hacksilver is that they were not pre-cut to standard
>> weights, but rather cut on demand...

> Then the author of the article misused the term. This was a sack of precut
> sheqel-weight pieces of silver, which is what made the find so interesting.

That's  not in the article.   And the accompanying picture seems to 
belie it.  Those pieces don't look like they're anything like the same 
mass. The one in the middle looks like it's less than half the mass of 
the one on the left, which in turn looks like it's no more than a third 
of the one on the right.


>      That the pieces of silver were unpolished suggesting that they were
>      not used as jewelry or ornamental objects and generally found together
>      wrapped in cloth and kept in pottery, indicates they were used as
>      a form of payment.

None of which says what you read into it, that they were all supposed to 
be the same weight.  All it means is that it's like the similar hoards 
found in Europe; miscellaneous bits of silver, cut from larger items, 
ugly and useless, and hidden away all together. When the owner owed 
someone two-and-a-half shekel he'd sort through his bag of miscellaneous 
silver looking for one or more pieces that together would weigh about 
that much, and if they were a little over he'd just cut some off until 
the weight was right, and throw the leftover little bit back in the bag.

-- 
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.