The ‘gerah’ was 1/20 of the sacred or heavy shekel and probably 1/24 of the light shekel.

The ‘sacred shekel’ according to tradition was identical with the heavy shekel; while the ‘shekel of the standard recognized by merchants’ (Gen. 23. 16) was perhaps a weight stamped with its value as distinct from one not so stamped and requiring to be weighed on the spot.

Recent discoveries of hoards of objects stamped with their weights suggest that the shekel may have weighed approximately 11.5 grammes towards the end of the Hebrew monarchy, but nothing shows whether this is the light or the heavy shekel; and much variety, due partly to the worn or damaged state of the objects and partly to variations in local standards, increases the difficulty of giving a definite figure.

Coins are not mentioned before the Exile. Only the ‘daric’ (1 Chr. 29. 7) and the ‘drachma’ (Ezra 2. 69; Neh. 7. 70–72), if this is a distinct coin, are found in the Old Testament; the former is said to have been a month's pay for a soldier in the Persian army, while the latter will have been the Greek silver drachma, estimated at approximately 4.4 grammes. The ‘shekel’ of this period (Neh. 5. 15) as a coin was probably the Graeco-Persian siglos weighing 5.6 grammes.

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