Definition of "shekel"

"Beauty is naught to him, because there are lips more honey-sweet; and wealth is naught, because others can weigh him down with heavier shekels; and fame is naught, because there have been greater men than he."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

Her gownlet cost five hundred beans; / Her furs, four figures in a row; / Her hat removed from papa's jeans / A hundred shekels more or so.

1914, The Judge, volume 66

[…] after the 1887-9 campaign was the great refuge of the destitute who, as they could not hope to rake in a breast-full of medals and decorations, expected, at any rate, to amass a good few shekels.

1924, James Alban Wilson, Sport and Service in Assam and Elsewhere, page 288

The mob had filched anything that might earn them a shekel or two.

2018, Gerry Woodhouse, Lord Damnus: Conqueror of the World