Why you can not always trust Wikipedia! This is why teachers tell you it is NOT a source!
I was looking up the meaning of "30 pieces of silver" and clicked to wikipedia's page on the subject. Take a look at this:
At spot valuation of $17.06/oz (the closing price on Monday, December 12, 2016), 30 "pieces of silver" would be worth between $185 and $216 in present-day value (USD).
Now if you can do basic second grade math you would know that $17.06/oz x 30 coins = $511.80! That is more than double what the "high" price quoted in this wikipedia post is ($216). This may only be a small oversight, but it still proves that you must verify your sources before using them!
The spot sprice for silver is in troy ounce. As in the article stated.
One coin does not weigh 1 oz of pure silver. They have between 0.423 oz (Tyrian shekels) and 0.361 oz (staters from Antioch) pure silver per coin.
30 coins of Tyrian shekels * with 0.423 oz of pure silver * 17.06$/oz = 216.4914$
30 coins of staters from Antioch * with 0.361 oz of pure silver * 17.06$/oz = 184.7598$
But nevertheless this method is highly inaccurate, because it just takes the today silver price, not the actual buying power. Back then 99,99% pure silver wasn't possible to make and way harder to find and mint.
The way you said it actually makes sense. The article implies that the oz is a troy oz and using the spot price they offer there should be no range. I like your explanation a lot better, it is far more accurate. You should add that to that page, it would make it far clearer! Unless otherwise specified, I assume when someone says oz of precious metals (such as silver), they mean troy oz.
Wikipedia can be edited by anyone lol.... that's why teachers don't recommend it to use for reference....
Congratulations @bigdeej!
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