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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Juan Blanco, post: 1579655, member: 41665&quot;]Are you trying hard to be contentious? I&#039;m not <i>assuming </i>anything (?) to be &quot;Tyrean&quot; but simply asked if the Tyrian tetradrachm was debased. But - where that coin was circulating - that is likely to be the coin referred to by Josephus. He didn&#039;t refer to the shekel, but numerous sources indicate the stater, worth 4 drachms, was approximately equivalent to a shekel. (See <i>Land and Economy in Ancient Palestine</i>, Jack Pastor 1997 p.75) </p><p><br /></p><p>This is a Silver Dollar/Peso quibble unless one coin was radically debased while the other was not. THEN the comment by Josephus reads another way, but Pastor (1997) doesn&#039;t address that. The issue in <i>65 </i>BCE was probably a food crisis w/price speculation - Pastor cites Jeremias (far too early?) and the estimation a skilled artisan&#039;s daily wage was 4 drachmas circa 100 BCE. </p><p><br /></p><p>Harl (1996) and others point out that EGYPTIAN and North African prices were very different than Asia Minor&#039;s. I&#039;m avoiding that zone. I should also correct the <b>US <i>retail </i>Silver price = $3.47</b>, factoring the dealer&#039;s 11% premium (apples-to-apples.)</p><p><br /></p><p>For USD$ Wheat, a US bushel (=60 lbs avd) is $ 9.5125 or the equivalent of<b> $0.4043 per <i>chœnix. </i></b>So, the<b> US retail Wheat price ($3.03) is 7.506x higher than commodity wholesale/spot.</b> </p><p><br /></p><p>Back to <b>Antioch in Pisidia AD 92/3 (again) the RETAIL Wheat price was 5x higher than wholesale. </b>That&#039;s lower than today, and so too US Fiatsco Dollar debasement continues to whatever tipping point. US retail food prices were probably higher in other times (relative to wholesale) but <i>when exactly </i>in peace-time? Were price-controls in effect? </p><p><br /></p><p>IF we can only compare current USD$ prices to some emergency period in the USA, then <i>commodity food prices </i>already <u>do</u> indicate how close we are to a crisis in 2012. </p><p><br /></p><p>In USD$, wholesale mkt Wheat prices were briefly higher in March 2007 (on spec) but USDA stats indicate the US retail Wheat price (April 2007) was only about 4.92x higher. On a relative basis, we&#039;re at levels 2x above 2007. Silver was much much cheaper then, too. (I wonder if the Fed is starting to freak on whatever that signals.)</p><p><br /></p><p><u><b>65 BCE: Food Crisis Price</b></u></p><p><u><b></b></u>fwiw, the fine Silverweight of the Tyrian drachma was 3.4122 grams = USD$ 3.56 (avg POS 11/2012 @ USD$ 32.42) so a &#039;modius wheat for eleven drachmæ&#039; (65 BCE) was 37.5342 grams fine Ag, corresponding to (USD$ 39.11/modius=) $111.75 a US bushel, therefore most likely <i>retail</i> <b>$1.86/lb avb.</b> (USD$ 4.75 per chœnix ; 4.69 grams of pure Ag per chœnix)</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Unless there was serious debasement </i>(<u>or</u> Flavius Josephus exaggerated/erroneously transcribed the Wheat price) the Food Crisis/Jerusalem price in 65 BCE was 54% higher than the AD 93 Event, as rated in fine Silver. Joachim Jeremias (1962, 1969 p.123) estimated price of the daily Wheat ration had multiplied 16x; the famine under Claudius (AD 44-48?) witnessed a price hike of 13x.</p><p><br /></p><p>Additional discussion of Roman Period Wheat Prices, famine, etc.: <i>Paul&#039;s Early Period: Chronology, Mission Strategy, Theology </i>... ;Rainer Riesner 91998) p.130[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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