This is correct - I don’t have as much knowledge about Jewish law and its usual interpretation circa 0AD, but Matthew was one of the first gospels to have its t

This is correct - I don’t have as much knowledge about Jewish law and its usual interpretation circa 0AD, but Matthew was one of the first gospels to have its traditional authorship questioned because it is written in masterfully crafted classical Greek - not anything accessible to a rural Aramaic speaker. Since the birth of Biblical exegesis scholarship in the 19th century it has been widely accepted that none of the gospels were authored by the traditionally associated apostles, or any apostles, or even any first-hand witnesses to Jesus. The book I immediately recall about this is Forged by Bart Ehrman, but gospel authorship is one of the most well tread and thoroughly analyzed areas of biblical scholarship and the fact that the apostles didn’t write them is one of the points closest to consensus in the field. I am intrigued to learn more about how Roman currency was managed in Judea at that time. As far as I know Jewish law did forbid carrying coinage with images of the emperor, but obviously many Jewish pilgrims to the temple had to exchange some kind of currency for shekels.