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1 Ancient Mediterranean. Toggle Ancient Mediterranean subsection. 1.1 Greece. ... European Currency Unit and 22 national currencies which were replaced by the euro:
Pages in category "Ancient currencies" The following 41 pages are in this category, out of 41 total. ... British Iron Bar currency; C. Celtic currency of Britain ...
The history of money is the development over time of systems for the exchange, storage, and measurement of wealth. Money is a means of fulfilling these functions indirectly and in general rather than directly, as with barter. Money may take a physical form as in coins and notes, or may exist as a written or electronic account.
Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. [1] From its introduction during the Republic, in the third century BC, through Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomination, and composition. A feature was the inflationary debasement and replacement of coins over ...
Originally, currency was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia and in Ancient Egypt. In this first stage of currency, metals were used as symbols to represent value stored in the form of commodities. This formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years.
For a timeline graphic showing the progression from pre-coin, to lion, to horsehead imagery on the earliest coins, see Basic Electrum Types. [14] Double-die style struck coin from Ancient India, c 304-232 BCE featuring an elephant on one face and a lion on the other. Since that time, coins have been the most universal embodiment of money.
The three most important standards of the ancient Greek monetary system were the Attic standard, based on the Athenian drachma of 4.3 grams (2.8 pennyweights) of silver, the Corinthian standard based on the stater of 8.6 g (5.5 dwt) of silver, that was subdivided into three silver drachmas of 2.9 g (1.9 dwt), and the Aeginetan stater or didrachm of 12.2 g (7.8 dwt), based on a drachma of 6.1 g ...
In ancient Greece, it was generally reckoned as 1 ⁄ 6 drachma (c. 0.72 grams or 11 grains). [14] [15] Under Roman rule, it was defined as 1 ⁄ 48 Roman ounce or about 0.57 g (9 gr). [16] The apothecaries' system also reckoned the obol or obolus as 1 ⁄ 48 ounce or 1 ⁄ 2 scruple. While 0.72 grams was the weight of a standard Greek obol ...