The Board Of Directors of the American Israel Numismatic Association has created the Shekel Prize, that will be given annually to the author of the best book published on the subject of AncientJudaean, Holy Land, Israel, or Jewish Numismatics. The judging committee consists of Mel Wacks, David Hendin, Ira Rezak, Steve Album and Allen Berman.

The Shekel Prize is an extremely high relief 3-inch medal designed by Victor Huster. Featured are three shekel designs-from a c. 8th century BCE shekel stone weight, a shekel of the FirstRevolt (66-70 CE), and 1-new shekel (issued by Israel beginning in 1985).

The first winner is Yoav Farhi, author of "Khirbet Qeiyafa Vol. 5: Excavation Report 2007-2013, The Numismatic Finds: Coins and Related Objects." Other contributors to this volumeare C. Lorber, S. Shalev and S. Shilstein. The Shekel Prize medal will be presented to Yoav later this year in a ceremony in Israel.

This is Farhi's first book. His MA thesis (2004) was The Coinage of the City of Lod (Diospolis) from the Roman Period to the End of the Early Islamic Period (Hebrew), and Farhi's DoctoralDessertation (2013) was The Coinage of Gaza in the Roman Period (1st Century BCE-3rd Century CE).

The winning book's content is described by the publisher, The Israel Exploration Society:

Other publications in the running for the 2017 Shekel Prize were "Jewish History in the Bible Portrayed in Coins" by Dr. John G. Leslie and "The New York Sale Auction XXXIX of Ancient CoinsFeaturing The Brody Family Collection of Ancient Jewish Coins" cataloged by Ira & Larry Goldberg Auctioneers, Baldwin's, Dmitry Markov, and M & M Numismatics Ltd.

Mel adds: