How much is 2 Zuz worth in current USD?

Question

As mentioned in the Passover Hagaddah, how much is "2 Zuz" worth in March 2013 US Dollars?

Please note there may be different types of Zuz: "זוזי פשיטי" and "זוזי ממש" (Ketuvot 67a).
This may be the Zuz in question: link .

This Aish.com article appears to imply 2 Zuz is worth $7.50:

But that seems cheap for a little goat, even one that can be eaten by a single cat, which can be easily bitten by a dog, which was doing the right thing in defending the goat and didn't deserve to be beaten by a stick, which deserved to be burned by the fire, which... you get the idea.

So what's 2 Zuz worth? How much did this baby goat go for in USD?

Answer 1

It's virtually impossible to compare money from such a long time ago.

Common comparisons are:

• Value of precious metal.
• Cost of a days meal.
• Days labor.

Each measure will give you a different number. For a goat probably a days labor is the best measure, since that's what you would have to do to get one.

A day laborer (unskilled) in those days would earn about one denarius (same as a zuz) per day.

Federal minimum wage in the US for a days labor is about $58, so your goat cost about $116. Although practically speaking most people can expect more since state minimum wage is higher, and someone earning minimum wage with a family (which is comparable to the situation back then) would get a large refund on their tax return. So the real number is probably higher.

Precious metal price you already know: $7.50.

In terms of food a Zuz is worth about $20 according to this. So $40 in that case.

Answer 2

Well first you need to determine what a Zuz is worth. Here is an article specifically talking about the 200Zuz of a Ketubah and it's various understandings, from $750-$1,000,000. Current custom in Israel is to not evaluate the actual worth of Talmudic coins but to equate it to purchasing power, technically known as relative worth. You can see this in action with US Dollars here. According to the Rabbinate the current relative worth of 200zuz is equivalent to $50000USD which is explained here. Coinicidentally this past October I was maseder kiddushin in the US. I asked Rav Ovadia Yosef before I wrote the Ketubah, if the $50k stipulation should also be included in an American Ketubah, where it wasn't mandated by state law and there were differing opinions concerning the value of a Zuz and he told me that it should still be written explicitly that 200zuz is equal to $50000USD.

So 50000/200=250. 250*2=500. So 2zuz is $500(or possibly considerably less if you follow another valid opinion).

Answer 3

According to R' Chaim Naeh (Shiurey Torah 3:42), one Talmudic Zuz is 4.8 grams of silver (he writes that a perutah is 1/40th of a gram of silver, and that a Dinar/Zuz = 192 perutas.) WolframAlpha calculates that to be $4.40 USD at the time of this post, or $8.80 for two Zuz.

As you mention in the question, there are two types of Zuz. The above calculation is for pure Zuz. Rashi there explains that 8 "Zuz Medina" are equal to one real Zuz, thus 2 Zuz Medina would be $1.1 USD.

However, all this is regarding the meaning of Zuz in Talmud. R' Chaim Naeh points out (Shiurey Torah Siman 1 footnote 21) that in the later Halachic works ("Poskim"), the term Zuz was used loosely for whatever coin their country happened to use. Chad Gadya is attributed to the Rokeach, so it may have referring to German currency.