(4) Pieces of Money. There is no direct allu sion in the sacred writings to coined money as belonging to the Jewish nation. In Gen. xxxiii:t9 Jacob is said to have bought a part of a field 'for an hundred pieces of money ;' and the friends of Job are said to have given him each 'a piece of money' (Job The term in the inal is kesitoth, and is by some thought to devote 'sheep' or lamb;' by others a kind of moriey hav ing the impression of a sheep or lamb; and by others again a purse of money. The most correct translation may be presumed to be that which favors the idea of a piece of money bearing some stamp or mark indicating that it was of the value of a sheep or Iamb. The name shekel, first used to indicate a weight, might afterwards be applied to a piece of money. According to Arbuthnot 3,000 of these shekels were equal to a talent. Some allegorical device would naturally suggest itself as the most appropriate for being impressed upon pieces of gold or silver of a given weight and fine ness; and as in the patriarchal ages property con sisted chiefly of flocks and herds, no better em blem could be used than that of a lamb, with which it is imagined the pieces of money alluded to may have been impressed.
(5) Early Coins. Maurice, in his Antiquities of India (vol. vii), bears testimony to the fact that the earliest coins were stamped with the figure of an ox or sheep. In the British Museum there is a specimen of the original Roman As, the surface of which is nearly the size of a brick, with the figure of a bull impressed upon it. Other devices would suggest themselves to different nations as arising out of, or connected with. par ticular places or circumstances, as the Babylonish lion, yEgina's tortoise, Bceotia's shield, the lyre of Mytilene, the wheat of Metapontum. On some of the reverses of the Roman large brass may be de ciphered, 'Valor standing full armed; Honor robed and chapleted; Happiness crowned with obliviscent poppies; Concord with extended hand, and the horn of plenty in her bosom; Hope tripping lightly. and smiling on a flower-bud; Peace offering the dlive branch ; Fortune resting on a rudder; Military Faith stretching forth his consecrated standard; Abundance emptying her cornucopia; Security leaning on a column; Mod esty veiled and sitting; Picty taking her gift to the altar; Fruitfulnessin the midst of her nurse lings; Equity adjusting her scales; Victory with wings and coronal and trumpet ; Eternity holdmg the globe and risen phrenix; or better, seated on a starry sphere: Liberty with cap and staff ; Na tional Prosperity sailing as a good ship before the favoring gale; and Public Faith with joined hands clasping between them the palms of success, and the caduceus of health' (Quarterly Review, vol.lxxii, p. 358). Religion would also at an early
period claim to be distinguished, and accordingly the effigies of Juno, Diana, Ceres, Jove, Hercules, Apollo, Bacchus, Pluto, Neptune, and many other of the heathen deities are found impressed upon the early coins. The Jews, however, were the worshipers of the one only true God; idolatry was strictly forbidden in their law ; and therefore their shekel never bore a head. but was impressed simply with the almond rod and the pot of manna.
(6) Roman Coinage. The first Roman coin age took place, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxiii :3), in the reign of Servius Tullius, about 55o year's before Christ ; but it was not until Alex ander of Macedon had subdued the Persian mon archy, and Julius Cmsar had consolidated the Ro man empire, that the image of a living ruler was permitted to be stamped upon the coins. Previous to that period heroes and deities alone gave cur rency to the money of imperial Rome.
Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, is represented to have granted to Simon Maccabxus the privi lege of coining money in Judma (1 Macc.
This is considered to be the first mention of He brew money, properly so called. It consisted of shekels and demi-shekels, the third part of a shekel, and the quarter of a shekel, of silver.
From the time of Julius Cmsar, who first struck a living portrait on his coins, the Roman coins run in a continued succession of so-called Czesars, their queens and crown-princes, from about B. C. 48 down to Romulus Augustulus, emperor of the West, who was dethroned by Odoacer about A. D. 475 (Quarterly Review, ut supra).
After its subjugation by Rotne much foreign money found its way into the land of Jud:ta. The piece of tribute money, or coin mentioned in Luke xx :24, as presented to our Savior, borc the image and superscription of the Roman emperor, and it is reasonable to suppose that a large quantity of Roman coins was at that timc in circulation throughout Judma. G. M. B.