Before the Exile the Jews had no regularly stamped money. They made use of uncoined shekels or talents of silver, which they weighed out (Genesis 23:16; Exodus 38:24; 2 Samuel 18:12). Probably the silver ingots used in the time of Abraham may have been of a fixed weight, which was in some way indicated on them. The "pieces of silver" paid by Abimelech to Abraham (Genesis 20:16), and those also for which Joseph was sold (37:28), were proably in the form of rings. The shekel was the common standard of weight and value among the Hebrews down to the time of the Captivity. Only once is a shekel of gold mentioned (1 Chronicles 21:25). The "six thousand of gold" mentioned in the transaction between Naaman and Gehazi (2 Kings 5:5) were probably so many shekels of gold. The "piece of money" mentioned in Job 42:11; Genesis 33:19 (marg., "lambs") was the Hebrew kesitah, probably an uncoined piece of silver of a certain weight in the form of a sheep or lamb, or perhaps having on it such an impression. The same Hebrew word is used in Joshua 24:32, which is rendered by Wickliffe "an hundred yonge scheep."

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A quoin; a corner or external angle; a wedge. See Quoin.

2. (n.) A piece of metal on which certain characters are stamped by government authority, making it legally current as money; -- much used in a collective sense.

3. (n.) That which serves for payment or recompense.

4. (v. t.) To make of a definite fineness, and convert into coins, as a mass of metal; to mint; to manufacture; as, to coin silver dollars; to coin a medal.

5. (v. t.) To make or fabricate; to invent; to originate; as, to coin a word.

6. (v. t.) To acquire rapidly, as money; to make.

7. (v. i.) To manufacture counterfeit money.