When a question arose about paying this tax, Jesus instructed Peter: “Go to the sea, cast a fishhook, and take the first fish coming up and, when you open its mouth, you will find a stater coin. Take that and give it to them for me and you.”​—Matthew 17:24-27.

Many scholars believe that the stater coin mentioned here was, in fact, the tetradrachma. This coin was worth four drachmas, or the equivalent of the temple tax for two persons. The tetradrachma was far more common and more readily available than the didrachma. The New Bible Dictionary thus comments: “It would appear that Jews frequently united to pay the Temple tax in pairs.”

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Enlargement of a tetradrachma