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Old 03-16-2019, 11:47 AM   #31
William Cloud Hicklin
Loremaster of Annúminas
 
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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William Cloud Hicklin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.William Cloud Hicklin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.William Cloud Hicklin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
While we're at it, what Tolkien clearly had in mind was the classic Anglo-Saxon silver penny of about 1.3-1.5 grams. The word used in the Gospel is the unhelpful argyria "silver coins;" but almost certainly the coins in question were Tyrian shekels,* which were ten times the weight and value of silver pennies. So Barliman the high priest gave Judas-Frodo about three pieces of silver for his betrayal. Or whatever.


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*Naturally offering-coins were what the Temple authorities had in their petty cash box. At this time the shekel minted at Tyre was the only coin accepted for Temple offerings, because it was of purer silver than Roman and Antiochene coinage. The business of the money-changers Jesus had driven out was to convert other coins, mostly Roman denarii or Greek tetradrachms, to Tyrian shekels.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.
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