Zuz (Jewish coin)

A Zuz (Hebrew: זוז; plural זוזים zuzim) was an ancient Jewish silver coin struck during the Bar Kokhba revolt as well as a Jewish name for the various types of non-Jewish small silver coinage, used before and after the period of the revolt.

The Jewish insurrectionists' zuzim were overstruck on Imperial denarii or provincial drachmas of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian.

Several different etymologies have been suggested for the word "zuz": In the Talmud, the zuz and the dinar are used interchangeably, the difference being that the zuz originally referred to the Greek Drachma (which was a quarter of the Greek Tetradrachm, which weighed approximately 17 grams) while the dinar referred to the later Roman Denarius (which was a quarter of the Tyrian shekels and had the same weight as the Jerusalem Shekels and the Roman provincial Tetradrachms at approximately 14 grams).

The zuz is mentioned in the Haggadah in the Passover song "Chad gadya, chad gadya" ("One little goat, one little goat"); in which the lyric of dizabin abba bitrei zuzei ("Which Father bought for two zuzim (half shekels)) repeats at the end of every stanza.

It may be significant that two zuzim equal the half-shekel tax required of every adult male Israelite in Exodus 30:13.