I did not manage to find the link you sent but I did read that in Mesopatamia (presumably what we call Bavel; Babylonia) there were silver shekels around 5000 years ago. I also read that some write that the first gold coins were made in Lydia around 600 BCE. The Lydia report seems to be contradicted by the Mesopatamia report. (Possibly the Mesopotamian shekel did not have any picture or form on it).

At any rate, if the Mesopotamian coins did possess a "Tzurah" this would mean that at the time the Torah was given, coins with "form" did exist.

I just found an interesting article in "Coin Week" from Feb 25 2021, where they write "Silver shekels and half shekels of Tyre were used by Jews in ancient Jerusalem to pay the annual Temple tribute of half a Shekel per year".

They seem to acknowledge that there is a possibility of minted coins in the time of the Beis Hamikdash.

When they refer to shekels of Tyre, this would seem to identify with what Gemara Kidushin 11a states in the name of Rav Asi "All silver mentioned in the Torah is Kesef Tzuri (Tyre)".

I am going to say a chidush that I do not think is necessary to say in order to answer the question, but it may still make things a little clearer.

The idea is that it might be possible to say that the use of "Kesef Tzurah" only occured later on in the second Beis Hamikdash; but nevertheless it is mentioned in the Torah. It does not necessarily follow that a Mitzvah of the Torah applies continuosly. It is possible that the Mitzvah does not apply for a long time and then comes into play later on.

An example is from Gemara Yoma 54a, which discusses the Mitzvah (Bemidbar 4:20) "And they shall not come to see when the holy things are wrapped up". The Gemara there states that in the time of the first Beis Hamikdash the Jews who came on Yomtov were shown the Keruvim. The Mitzvah of the Torah of not seeing the holy items did not apply in the time of the first Beis Hamikdash. The Meiri in Yoma writes that because they were on a very high Madreigah in Bayis Rishon they were allowed to see the Keruvim. This practice did not continue into the time of the second Beis Hamikdash when the prohibition of "they shall not come to see" did apply.

My suggestion is that we learn from this that there is a Mitzvah which did not apply in the time of the 1st Beis Hamikdash but did apply in the 2nd BH. Similarly it is possible that there was no Kesef Tzurah in the time of the 1st BH but there was in the time of the 2nd BH.

So even if the first coins were the Lydia coins of 600 BCE, which is around the time of the destruction of the 1st BH, this may not concern us too much.

However, as I wrote above, it seems that there were coins 5000 years ago and we do not seem to know for sure that there was no Tzurah then. And the coins of Tyre can go back to the time of the Torah. I did read the following sentence "the first dated coin struck by Zankle, Sicily in 494/493 BCE" which was in the time of Beis Sheni. Possibly it was only then that dating of coins started, but coins of "Tzurah" without a date, may go back a lot further.

The Shulchan Aruch seems to say that Mideoraisa one does not need to redeem on minted coins:-

When I first saw this question I started wondering whether any of the Mefarshim say that what the Gemara tells us that minted coins are required for Chilul, is only an Asmachta. If we would say that, we could say that this is a Din DeRabanan that was only said in the time of the 2nd Beis Hamikdash, by which time minted coins were frequent in the world. At first I could not find anyone who said that the Drasha on "veTzarta HaKesef" is only an Asmachta but now I have found, bs'd, that the Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 331:138 writes:-

"One may only redeem Maaser Sheni on Kesef...one may not redeem it on Kesef which is not a coin, but it must be minted Kesef which has a Tzurah or writing on it.....It is possible that these matters were only said when the Beis Hamikdash stood, but nowadays when Maaser Sheni is anyway not eaten one does not have to be particular about this. Nevertheless, in practise, one shoud be concerned about this and nowadays also one should only redeem Maaser Sheni on coins which are valid currency".

Derech Emunah, by Rav Chaim Kanyevsky zt'l, on Rambam Hilchos Maaser Sheni 4:9 Biur Halacha DH veHoo, writes that it appears from the Shulchan Aruich that his opinion is that the requirement to redeem on minted coins is only Derabanan. Derech Emunah writes at length that this is extremely surprising.

However, we do seem to have found an opinion (even though it is very hard to understand this opinion) that minted coins are not required Mideoraisa for redemption.

Support for the Shulchan Aruch from the Rambam:-

The 5th Mishnah in the 6th chapter of Terumos states that according to Chachamim if one inadvertently ate Terumah one is permitted to pay back with Maaser Sheni which had been redeemed. The Rambam, in his commentary on the Mishnah, writes that this means the Maaser Sheni was redeemed, but was not redeemed according to the Halacha. Even though the Maaser Sheni was not redeemed according to the Halacha, it is no longer Kodesh. Rambam writes that when we say it was not redeemed according to the Halacha this means that the Maaser Sheni was redeemed on an Asimon. We learn from the Rambam that it is effective bedieved if one redeems on a non-minted coin. This suggests that the requirement to redeem on a minted coin is not Me'akev; it works bedieved even if that condition is not present becauae the minted coin is not required accoring to Torah law; it is only necessary MideRabanan.

Newspaper headline from a year ago:- "Study reveals silver coins were used as currency in Israel 3600 years ago":-

Whilst I have shown that there may be some opinions that Mideoraisa one does not require Kesef Tzurah to redeem Maaser Sheni, we still must remember that Avraham Avinu bought the Cave of Machpela from Ephron for 400 silver shekalim, which were valid for trade. This suggests that there were mint coins a long time before the Torah was given.

In January and February of last year, there was a lot of coverage of a discovery of ancient coins. Statements were made in the media that it had been discovered that coins were in use 500 years earlier than previously believed.

And then, just 3 weeks ago, on 14 Jan 2024, there are reports of a coin from 2,550 years ago, which was found in a second Beis Hamikdash era home near Jerusalem.

It seems that the researchers are starting, exactly now, to understand what the Torah and Chazal tell us about mint coins.

Dovid Bloom