A shekel was a Hebrew coin that weighed about 1/2 ounce made of silver. The price of silver varies but it is about $17 US $ /ounce today (3/2/09)
1 Israeli new sheqel = 0.2915 US dollars
A shekel is the basic Hebrew unit of weight and money. A shekel equals 11.4 g. 50 Shekels equaled on mina. In modern terms, a shekel of silver equals $2.20. A shekel of gold equals $128.45.
44000 $ shekel = .497 oz1480$ per oz today standardsbasically 30 oz of gold=40,000 grand :)
1 Israeli shekel = 0.264061 U.S. dollars