Stater

The stater was a Greek silver coin mentioned in Matthew 17:27, where Jesus instructs Peter to cast a hook into the sea, take the first fish, and find a stater in its mouth to pay the temple tax (didrachma) for both of them. The Revised Version renders it "shekel" since the stater was equivalent to the Hebrew shekel in value — four Greek drachmas, or two didrachmas, worth approximately two shillings and sixpence in Victorian currency.

The temple tax of half a shekel (the didrachma) was the annual levy on every adult Jewish male for the upkeep of the sanctuary, based on the Mosaic census tax of Exodus 30:13. The miracle of the coin in the fish's mouth provided the exact amount needed for two people — Peter and Jesus — with nothing to spare and nothing extra, a detail that has struck readers as evidence of the miracle's precise intentionality.