Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SHEK'EL, n. [Heb. שקל, to weigh; Ch. Syr. Ar. and Eth. id.; Eth. to append or suspend; Low L. siclus; Fr. sicle. From this root we have shilling. Payments were originally made by weight, as they still are in some countries. See Pound.]

An ancient weight and coin among the Jews and other nations of the same stock. Dr. Arbuthnot makes the weight to have been equal to 9 pennyweights 2 4/7 grains, Troy weight, and the value 2s. 3 3/8d. sterling, or about half a dollar. Others make its value 2s. 6d. sterling. The golden shekel was worth £1 16s. 6d. sterling, about $8, 12. – Encyc.