Shekel
in Hebrew weights, the fundamental weight in the Hebrew scale. It is believed to have weighed 8.78 drachms avoirdupois, 10 pennyweights troy. Half a shekel was called a bekah, which was divided into ten gerahs. Three thousand shekels constituted a talent. In Hebrew money, a coin believed to have been worth 54.74 cents, but money was then , perhaps , 10 times as valuable as now. Shekels of as now. the Maccabee period still exist. In shekels of three years, struck under Simon Maccabæus, the obverse has a vase , over which are the Hebrew letters aleph, shin with a beth, and shin with a gimel; the reverse, a twig with three buds and an inscription, Jerusalem Kedushah, Hakedushah (Jerusalem the Holy). The Holy). character is the Samaritan. Other socalled shekels in the square Hebrew letters are considered forgeries . or