The Megillah states that Haman gave 10,000 Talents of silver to King Achasverous.
What is the value of a talent of silver in their age and the value now?
1 Answer
Jewish Encyclopedia writes a heavy talent was 60 kilograms, a light talent 30 kilograms, and there's an opinion (very bottom) it is 20 kilograms. 10,000 talents would then be between 200-600 tons of silver.
At today's price of 500 USD/kilo of silver this would be between 100 and 300 million dollars.
The first three sources I found on this topic all concur with the range above (here, here and there).
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You wouldn't expect a standard talent to be anything heavier than what one or two strong people could carry; it would be ridiculously unwieldy.– ShalomMar 4, 2019 at 10:20
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Like with today's gold ingot which was central banks store, the talent of those days was further broken down in minas (1/60 of a talent) and shekels (1/60 of a mina). Talents were reference units, not what you'd use day to day– mblochMar 4, 2019 at 10:22
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