The recipes for wine are in the talmud. What they called wine we call Brandy. It was mixed with water to purify the water and to cut the alcohol level. To drink it straight got you bombed too fast.
It would have been a temple shekel, which looks like a fishing weight. The shekels were all cast in the same mold and therefore the same volume, but of gold, silver, copper, brass or other metal that may be considered valuable thus setting their value. coins would have been an abomination, having an image engraved on them
I cannot believe no one has asked: Are any of the posters of Tiffany?