A little wonder, every day

Mesopotamian records show silver being measured by weight

A reconstructed Mesopotamian scribe records an account beside weighed silver; not a specific surviving tablet.

cuneiform summary account of silver for a governor, BM 15826, from Shuruppak or Abu Salabikh, circa 2500 BCE.

Silver fragments and stone weights measured on a balance in a reconstructed Mesopotamian merchant courtyard; not a specific artifact.

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A reconstructed Mesopotamian scribe records an account beside weighed silver; not a specific surviving tablet.

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In Mesopotamia, silver could serve as a measure of value long before coins appeared. Cuneiform documents recorded property dealings and payments in silver, which was weighed; the shekel was one unit of weight used in accounting. The Penn Museum explains that by around 2500 BCE, goods and property could already be valued in silver. This was not a coin with a standard image, but metal whose quantity was determined by weighing and recorded on tablets.