English: Illustration of an Hebrew ancient coin from Athanasius Kircher's 1697 book Turris Babel; stated to be a reproduction of a coin seen in the collections of Francesco Gualdo (Francisci Gualdi), Francesco Angeloni (Francisci Angelomi), and of a D. Franz Gottifred (Francisci Gottifredi ). Both sides of the coin are shown.

The characters on the coin, supposed to be an ancient version of Hebrew script (cfr. here) are transcribed by Kircher in modern Hebrew as follows:
אירושלם הקדושה שקל ישראל
And in ancient Samaritan as follows:

translated in latin as Israël siclus Sancta Jerusalem ("Shekel of Israel, Holy Jerusalem").

The letter on the left is said to be the initial of the name of David (indicat initialem literam nominis David), so it should represent the sound "D", ד.

The letter on the right is said to be the initial of the word Sicli, "shekel" (significat initialem literam sicli), so it should represent the sound "Sch", ש.

For more informations, please see page 215 of the book, and the whole Cap. VI§2 for an extensive discussion (in Latin).

PS: please note that the coin shown here could be a faithful reproduction of this I century half shekel