Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
⅛ Shekel Hacksilber ingot
| Issuer | |
|---|---|
| Year | 930 BC - 586 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Shekel (930 BC-586BC) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A roughly quarter-circular section of a cast silver hacksilber ingot, showing an irregular, unworked surface with natural striations and casting marks typical of ancient Near Eastern bullion currency. The piece bears no intentional design or inscription, its form resulting entirely from the mechanical division of a larger circular silver bar. Surface texturing reflects the raw, utilitarian nature of pre-coinage commodity money used by weight in ancient Israel and Judah. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain, unworked reverse surface exhibiting the rough, granular texture characteristic of a cast and cut silver hacksilber fragment. No design, legend, or mint mark is present; the irregular flat face and fractured edges are consistent with deliberate cutting from a larger ingot to achieve the required fractional weight of one-eighth shekel. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Hacksilber — weighed silver used as currency before coinage existed in the Levant — circulated throughout the Iron Age southern Levant as a practical payment medium alongside shekel-weight standards derived from Mesopotamian metrology. This fragment's weight conforms to the one-eighth shekel subdivision, suggesting it was deliberately cut to meet a specific transaction requirement rather than broken incidentally. The Tel Miqne and City of David hoards have produced comparable pieces, sometimes mixed with ingots, jewelry fragments, and foreign silver, confirming these were actively managed as fungible monetary material well into the late monarchic period.