Coin

Coined money, as opposed to weighed silver and gold, came into use in the ancient Near East gradually, with the earliest true coins struck in Lydia and Ionia in the seventh century BC. The Old Testament economy was largely based on weighed metal — shekel-weights of silver and gold — and the first explicit references to actual coins appear in post-exilic texts. The daric (a Persian gold coin) and the drachma appear in Ezra and Nehemiah. Earlier references to monetary amounts in Genesis and Samuel are generally understood as referring to weighed units rather than stamped coins.

By the New Testament era, coins were ubiquitous. Three major currencies circulated in first-century Palestine: Roman imperial coins (denarius, as), Greek coins (drachma, stater), and Jewish temple coins (shekel, lepton). The tribute penny or denarius of Matthew 22:19–21 — whose image and inscription is this? — prompted Jesus's famous teaching on the obligations of civic and divine loyalty. The widow's two mites (lepta) in Mark 12:42 and the lost coin (drachma) in Luke 15:8–9 illustrate the full range of denominations used across social classes in the Roman world.