Was it customary to pay wages in silver in the time of Jesus?

Answer 1

A:No. Various denominations of copper coins were used for ordinary transactions and silver coins were more the currency of the middle classes.

One silver denarius would have been quite a good day's wage, but spending it would have been difficult. A slave could be bought for twenty denarii (or drachma).

The silver four drachma piece, also called a stater, was equal to the Semitic shekel, which is probably the coin referred to in the story of Judas Iscariot, so the reward would have been surprisingly large just for identifying someone already known to the religious leaders.