CURRENCY CURRENTLY

IT'S GOOD FRIDAY

The standard of currency at the time and place Jesus of Nazareth lived and died was the Roman silver coin they called a 'denarius'.  (The Greeks had an equivalent coin they called the 'drachma'.)

A 'denarius' was the standard for one day's wages for a laborer.  This would make one worth about $20 in our money, today.  The 'shekel' was a four 'denarii' silver coin ($80).

The poorest of people used a copper coin called a 'sestertius'.  It was one quarter of a denarii ($5).  They also had a coin called the 'assarion'  which was on quarter of a 'sestertius'. Their smallest coin was the 'quadrans' which would equal about 25 cents.

The rich had a gold coin called the 'aurius' which was worth 25 denarii or about $500 US dollars.  The super wealthy had so much gold it couldn't be minted so it was valued as 'talents' which were equal to 10,000 denarii.  There was no coin called a 'talent'.

In the Christian Bible, it is written that Judas of Iscariot betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.  I assume these are 'denarii'.  That would be about $600 by my calculations.




*The Latin plural of denarius is denarii.