# Talk:Thirty pieces of silver

How much value had in that time 30 silver coins? I know that deppends on the kind of coin used, but there must be a range. How much money made a worker for a day? Comu_nacho (spanish speaker) (talk) 18:31, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

The two coins mentioned as candidates are the Tyrian tetradrachm and the Antiochan stater.  Currency debasement and imprecise terms ("stater" could have a few meanings) make it difficult to be precise, but my understanding is that in this period both are roughly equivalent to a Roman denarius.  According to Biblical references, a denarius was about one day's wage for a manual laborer.  This may or may not be intended to be taken literally.  At this time, a Roman soldier made about 5/8 of a denarius per day, but they were also living rent-free.
It's nearly impossible to assign exchange rates to ancient currency due to extreme market differences, but to give a general sense, the most common Roman coin in actual commerce was the copper as, which was 1/16 of a denarius.  In the rural provinces in the first century, an as could probably buy a loaf of bread or a cup of decent wine (about a British pint).  So you can think of thirty pieces of silver as enough money to buy 480 loaves of bread, or     260 liters of wine.  :)  Elmo iscariot (talk) 19:36, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

In season 3 of House M.D., Dr. Wilson tells the Detective "I'm going to need 30 pieces of silver." before talking to him about Dr. House's illegal prescriptions. 76.100.161.245 (talk) 03:11, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

In a fiction story that I saw once, a man was offered money to do something, and he answered angrily "Try thirty pieces of silver!".

I added... The #30 was recognized by the Hebrews (and others) as being sacred because of the lunar cycle of 29.53 days and the Hebrew calender using alternate 29-day and 30-day months. The Torah/Bible lists Noah's Ark as "30 cubits high"<ref]Genesis 6:15</ref] and Solomon's Temple as "30 cubits high".<ref]1 Kings 6:2</ref] - 2601:586:C701:4135:587C:F645:E3A3:DF15 (talk) 14:04, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for starting this discussion. We need citations to reliable secondary sources. It's not enough to have a couple of Bible verses, and neither of them say the number 30 was sacred anyway. Do any scholars connect these measurements with the 30 pieces of silver? StAnselm (talk) 18:08, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

Just in case anyone thinks the content here was copied from this book, it was actually the other way round: the author has copied substantially from this article. StAnselm (talk) 16:44, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

Reference to a purported relic of one of the pieces of silver is kept in Nin, in Croatia. Consider adding that?  I don’t know how to contribute. 2601:14B:C301:2C60:E4A5:B4A1:72D0:4BFF (talk) 19:30, 4 September 2022 (UTC)