(Shechita tokens)
Tokens issued by a community for the slaughtering of kosher poultry
The community wanted to ensure the availability of kosher poultry and had to guarantee that a reliable shochet (religious person allowed to slaughter animals) was available even in small communities, but without creating a monopoly and ask for overpriced fees. The community controled the fee structure by issuing tokens to its members for payment to the shochet. Thus the shochet would be paid after returning the tokens earned. Valid kosher shechita was thus guaranteed in the community at an acceptable price whether there were 20 Jews in town or 100,000, and the shochet neither starved nor made a fortune. This fee structure also included a “shechita tax” that dedicated to support Jewish education.
Jacoby, Ruth. “Tokens for Shehita and Miqve from Samarkand.” Israel Numismatic Research, vol. 5, 2010, pp. 161-66.
Kisch, Bruno. “Jewish Community Tokens.” Historia Judaica, vol. XV, 1953, pp. 167-82.
Matalon, Shmuel. “Shehita Tokens – In Paper.” The Shekel: The Journal of Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics, vol. 17, no. 5, 1984, pp. 25-6.
Toth, J. and Zombori, L. “The Numismatic Relics of Israelitic Religious Community in Hungary.” TAMS Journal, vol. 30, no. 2, 1990, pp. 47-51.
Toth, J. and Zombori, L. “The Numismatic Relics of Israelitic Religious Community in Miskolc, Hungary.” The Shekel: The Journal of Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics, vol. 28, no. 5, 1995, pp. 21-3.
Van Ostveen, Jan. “Kosher.” Nieuwkoop: Loden: Metaaldetector Vondsten, 2016, pp. 52-79.
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