We combine shipping. Wait for invoice.
The first Masonic Shekel was made in 1895. This is not the first.
The Following is from Wright 3.
It is the custom of Chapters using this type of Mark to consider them as
"half" shekels but the Hebrew legend on the reverse reads SHEKEL ISREAL
The Hebrew for half shekel is CHATZI HA-SHEKEL. The history of this type is
as follows: In the year 1895 Comp. A. G. Pitts Sect'y. of King Cyrus No.
133 Mich. chanced to see a shekel of the 2d year of the coinage of Simon
Maccabeus and thinking its design very appropriate had a firm of manufacturing
jewelers in Detroit copy the reverse. A keystone and necessary legend
for the obverse and the design was complete for an attractive looking Mark.
Comp. Pitts being highly elated with his design published a description
of it in the Feb. (1896) number of the "American Tyler." It does not need
words of praise, for the simple fact that over thirty Chapters have copied, or
plagiarized this design is sufficient proof of its value.
When a man does so well that even his slightest errors are thus faithfully
copied mere words are inadequate to express the value of his work.
Few are sufficiently familiar with Hebrew to detect the mistake. Comp.
Pitts considered it as a "half" shekel and the present writer in the second list
of the "Mark Penny" made the same error, hence in order that a whole shekel
may no longer be accepted as its half