On Hebrew-Samaritan Coins

...the power of deciding legal sentences, which belonged to him by his own right from the time that he was hailed by the people as the High Priest and Prince of Israel; otherwise, the meaning of the Sacred text in that passage would not fit together appropriately. And if there were room for conjecture, I would think that an error arose for the Syrian Interpreter from the ambiguous meaning of the word nomismatos original Greek: νομίσματος, meaning both "custom/law" and "currency". For that word is sometimes used by the Greeks to mean an edictal law, or for that which is sanctioned by law; specifically because currency, as Aristotle says, exists not by nature but by law original: οὐ φύσει ἀλλὰ νόμῳ ἐστὶ. Bayer is highlighting the etymological link between "nomos" (law) and "nomisma" (money). (1): on which point one should consult H. Stephanus, Vossius, and in his work Festus and others.

Finally, the silence of Josephus and others, which Mr. Tychsen urges in the third place, should move no one; since Josephus does not even mention the letters of Antiochus to Simon, in which the power of minting money was contained (2); as for these other authors, it would have been of little interest to them to inquire into or record whether such a right had been granted. Furthermore, the claim that the Jews in the age of the Maccabees had no peculiar coins of their own is asserted by Mr. Tychsen without proof, as I shall soon show.

For he continues, saying that no shekels were struck in the earliest times; indeed, he claims the word shekel siclus: the standard Hebrew unit of weight and currency among the Hebrews signified only a weight and an imaginary kind of money. I admit this, if he restricts his thesis to the times of the Hebrew Republic or Monarchy, or even up until their return from the Babylonian exile. But truly, after the wealth of the Jews increased and the yoke of the Nations was removed from Israel, just as the people established a unique Era for themselves under Simon the High Priest, the great leader and prince of the Jews: so Simon thought about issuing and circulating coins. For a solid four-year period—namely from the year 170 of the Greeks The Seleucid Era, roughly 142 BCE.—he first struck shekels and half-shekels inscribed with Samaritan letters with the names of Israel and Jerusalem, then later struck unique coins under his own name, and this was done with the unexpected permission of the Kings of Syria. And from that time shekel, which had hitherto been the name of a weight, was transferred by the Hebrews to signify the shekel coins about which we now treat. The shekel, says Josephus, being a coin of the Hebrews etc. (3). Philo says: two hundred drachmas of silver coinage original: δραχμὰς διακοσίας νομίσματος ἐξ ἀργύρου (4): in which nearly the same manner Suidas, Pollux, Hesychius, and others also argue (5).

(1) See Ethics, book 8. The discussion of money usually appears in Book 5 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Bayer may be using a different edition or numbering.
(2) Antiquities, Book XIII, chapter VII (otherwise XII), section 2.
(3) Antiquities, Book III, chapter VIII (otherwise IX), section 2.
(4) On Special Laws, which refer to the third, fourth, and fifth commandments of the Decalogue.

London Edition, Volume II, page 276.
(5) And it should be noted, since Judas the brother of Simon had sent silver to Jerusalem in the year 148 of the Greeks (at which time, clearly, coins had not yet been struck in Israel),